be a leader essay

Feb 15, 2023

Essays on Leadership for Students | 200 - 500 Word Essays

Are you writing an essay about leadership? Check out these examples!

Leadership is often defined as "the action of inspiring others to act in concert to achieve a particular goal." It signifies the harmony in actions that lead to a common objective. A genuine leader not only exudes confidence but also paves the way for their followers towards triumph. Over the years, various leadership styles have been identified and discussed by psychologists.

 Qualities such as intelligence, adaptability, extroversion, innate self-awareness, and social competence often emerge as the hallmarks of impactful leaders. There's a consensus that these traits mold an individual into an effective leader. Interestingly, some theories suggest that extraordinary situations can thrust an ordinary individual into the spotlight, bestowing upon them the mantle of leadership. It's also believed that leadership isn't a static trait but an evolving journey. It underscores the belief that with dedication and the right resources, anyone can hone their leadership abilities.

 True leadership goes beyond merely advocating for a cause. It involves taking responsibility, igniting motivation in others, and differentiating oneself from just being a 'boss'. A leader's essence lies in their ability to inspire and propel people towards grand visions, whereas a manager typically focuses on oversight and operational aspects.

What Is a Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay falls under the category of student application essays and serves to provide student admissions officers with insight into your past leadership experiences. Despite appearing to be very specific, this type of essay acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can vary significantly depending on the individual and the context.

 If you find yourself in need of further insights or a unique angle for your leadership essay, consider exploring an expert essay-writing tool designed to assist students in crafting compelling narratives by analyzing vast data and generating fresh ideas within minutes. In this article, we'll also delve into various leadership essay examples to offer a clearer understanding of the genre and inspire your writing journey.

4 Examples of Leadership Essays

Qualities of a good leader, introduction.

Confidence is the most important attribute first of all. One of the most important qualities in a leader is confidence in one's own abilities. A lack of self-assurance is fatal to a person's leadership potential. If you want others to follow you, you need to exude self-assurance. It's imperative for a leader to have faith in his own judgment and actions. How can people want to follow him if he doesn't even know what he's doing?

Every effective leader knows that they need to be an inspiration to their followers. A leader needs to set an example for his team. In addition, he ought to inspire them whenever feasible. A leader must also maintain optimism in trying times.

What qualities a good leader must have?

Leadership is the ability to influence and guide individuals or groups toward a common goal. A leader must possess several qualities to be effective, including:

Communication skills: A leader must be able to communicate their vision and goals clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. This requires excellent listening skills, empathy, and the ability to adapt to different communication styles.

Emotional intelligence: A leader must be able to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as those of their team members. This includes being able to understand and respond to the emotions of others, and handling conflicts in a constructive manner.

Visionary: A leader must have a clear and inspiring vision of the future, and be able to articulate this vision in a way that motivates others to work towards it.

Strategic thinking: A leader must be able to think critically and creatively to identify and solve problems, make decisions, and develop plans and strategies to achieve their goals.

Flexibility: A leader must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be open to new ideas and perspectives. This requires the ability to embrace change, be innovative, and continuously learn and grow.

Integrity: A leader must have strong ethics and values, and be willing to make difficult decisions that are consistent with their beliefs. This requires honesty, transparency, and accountability.

Decisiveness: A leader must be able to make tough decisions quickly, without undue hesitation or procrastination. This requires courage and the ability to take calculated risks.

Empowerment: A leader must be able to delegate responsibilities, give team members the resources they need to succeed, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their team.

Conclusion 

These qualities are essential for effective leadership, and when combined with hard work, determination, and a commitment to excellence, can help leaders to achieve great things.

How one can be a Great Leader?

Leadership is the act of performing the duties of a leader. In the business world, for instance, it is essential to have someone in charge of a team to ensure everything runs well. Effective leadership is essential for any group that wants to maximize its prospects of success.

Leadership Comes from Experience

As we've shown, leadership can be innate in some cases but is more often learned through practice and exposure. Sometimes the best traits of a leader must be learned over a lengthy period of time, so that one can become a notable one, proving that leadership is not always about a person's innate qualities. Leaders should continuously be on the lookout for opportunities to grow their leadership skills.

Nobody can disagree that experience is a key component of leadership. Numerous examples exist to back up this claim, such as:

Instance 1:

Our school's head boy or girl has traditionally been an older student who has been around for a while and thus has a better grasp of the ins and outs of school politics.

Instance 2:

When there is a vacancy for a team leader, it is common practice for the employee who has consistently put in the most effort and attention to the office job to receive a higher number of votes than their coworkers. 

“The best teacher for a leader is evaluated experience.” - John C. Maxwell

How one can be a Great Leader/Skills to be a Great Leader?

Effective leadership is a skill that develops through time. Developing into a leader with all the qualities that are needed takes a lot of hard work and potential. Being a prominent leader calls for a wide variety of traits. Some of these characteristics are addressed in further detail below:

One should be a Good Communicator

To be an effective leader, one must be able to convey his thoughts clearly to his/her/its subordinates.

Should have Confidence

The individual should have faith in what he says and does.

Give Credit to other Team Members too

A leader not only needs to impose his viewpoints and opinions instead he must also hear to the suggestions of other members of the team and offer them credit if their concept is appropriate.

Good Bond with the Team

A leader's ability to command respect from his team members depends on his ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with them.

Leads with Responsibility

A leader needs to be completely committed to his position. It's important that he takes on responsibility so that he can effectively deal with the various challenges he will inevitably face.

Any group or organization needs a leader above all else. Leadership development takes time and effort. One needs to have lived through a lot to be an effective leader. It's not enough to simply have years of experience in the field; one must also have the traits that make one an effective leader. You can't be a great leader unless you possess certain traits.

What makes a Good Leader?

Trying one's hand as a leader appears easy when viewed through this lens. Is that so tough? Of course not; leading is difficult, and not everyone aspires to be a leader. The vast majority of us have settled into well-established careers where we report to superiors and make a living. Still, not everyone is content to go along with the crowd. They become leaders in whatever field they pursue. A leader is an example to followers and will prioritize the needs of those around them.

Some Unique Qualities of a Leader

Many individuals resort to their leaders to vent their frustrations, therefore it's important for them to be good listeners.

A leader ought to be completely forthright; they can't play favorites or give anyone preferential treatment. One of the most essential qualities of a strong leader is the ability to make decisions with integrity.

They need to be aware of the bigger picture and understand what makes an individual stand out or become a leader. It's their expertise in addition to other distinguishing traits. Their awareness of current events and the results of recent studies is essential. In many ways, this is helpful, and it's the leader's responsibility to stay current.

Since some might not understand them, they should utilize straightforward, easily comprehended language. Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively at all times. In reality, what sets them apart is their exceptional communication skills. Adolf Hitler was such a gifted orator that his followers believed every word he said.

No matter how you're feeling or what's going on in the world, if you listen to a leader, they may make you feel energized. Since leaders are in charge of inspiring confidence in their followers, they can't afford to be wary or unsure of themselves. People tend to blindly follow their leaders.

Whether you're a leader or a doctor, you should devote yourself completely to your chosen field. Everything we do is for the benefit of others; engineers, for example, spend much of their time designing and constructing buildings for other people. So, take pride in what you do, and if you possess the aforementioned traits, you are also a leader who doesn't have to rely on others to succeed. No matter what you do, aspiring to leadership positions will always benefit others.

What is Leadership in Management and what are the weaknesses and strengths of a Leader?

Simply said, leadership is acting as a supervisor or manager of a group. Different mental pictures pop up when we hear the word "leadership" used in conversation. One might think of a political leader, team leader, corporate leader, school leader, etc. Leaders facilitate order and efficiency in the workplace. Teamwork and success are fundamental to effective leadership. Leaders utilize their managerial abilities to establish courses and guide their teams to success.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership

Able to express oneself more clearly

Growth of character.

Self-awareness.

Possession of teamwork skills.

Gain assurance in yourself.

Weaknesses:

Acting favorably toward one's teammates.

Having no faith in the leader.

Thinks they're better than everyone else, but act hypocritically.

Not living up to the promised standard.

Insufficient morals.

Leadership and Management

Management and leadership are inextricably linked to one another. Leadership and management are both vital to the efficient operation of an organization; but, they accomplish very different things in the process. Leadership is a necessary skill for anyone aspiring to be an effective manager. The terms management and leadership are synonymous with one another. In this manner, we are able to draw the conclusion that a manager who demonstrates the traits of a successful leader is, in fact, a manager who is effective.

Leadership in School

Leadership is essential in nearly every group, as we've seen above. That group includes one's educational institution. Every school needs an outstanding figure to serve as its head of school. Class monitor, assembly captain, cultural leader, etc. are all examples of leadership roles that can be taken on at school, but this raises the question of what makes a person a successful school leader.

Any student hoping to be chosen as a student body leader will need to demonstrate a wide range of competencies. He or she needs to be a consistent student who pays attention in class and does well in extracurricular activities. For the simple reason that no intelligent and hardworking kid would ever be considered for leadership. Student leaders are most often selected from among those who participate fully in all activities.

Leadership in Organization

Leadership in an organization, also known as organizational leadership, is the process of establishing long-term objectives that further the company's mission and help it reach its ultimate destination. This is a classic illustration of how Bill Gates often works with his team: they agree on a strategy, and Gates implements it. To the same extent, it is the responsibility of the leader in each given organization to determine what it is that the group is trying to accomplish.

Leadership in Politics

Leadership in politics, also known as political leadership, is the process of becoming actively involved in a political party in the role of a party leader. Knowledge of political processes, their outcomes, and the political agenda is central to the idea of political leadership.

An effective leader can be developed in anyone who has the determination and drives to do so. Both the strengths and the areas for improvement should be nurtured. Whether in the classroom, the workplace, or the political arena, leadership is always necessary. Therefore, one can exercise leadership anywhere they like inside their own organization.

What are the types of Leadership?

The ability to lead is a rare trait that not everyone possesses. The ability to do so is a gift, so count your blessings if you possess it. It's recommended that you hone it even more so that you can propel your career forward and serve as an example to people around you. However, it is crucial to grasp the various leadership styles before you go ahead and polish your skills.

Types of Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership

In this style of management, subordinates are given a voice in decision-making. Although the subordinates' efforts are highlighted, the leader is ultimately held responsible for the group's actions. Many people find this type of leadership to be effective.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate and inspire others to adopt new behaviors and ways of thinking in order to improve their own performance and that of their teams and organizations. A transformational leader is someone who encourages their team to strive for greater things and works to boost morale and output.

Team Leadership

A good leader fully incorporates his team into the task at hand. Members of the team are motivated to reach their goals and advance in their careers thanks to the leadership of the group.

Strategic Leadership

It requires a chief executive who doesn't restrict himself to brainstorming sessions with his superiors. He contributes on every level of the team. He is well-liked for his ability to unite the need for fresh ideas with the necessity of grounding them in reality.

Autocratic Leadership

The leader in a command and control structure is the center of attention. The chief executive has absolute power in this setting. He decides things on his own, without polling his staff. He relays this information to his staff and stresses the importance of swift action. The buck stops with him, and he alone must answer for his actions. Not much room for negotiation exists. It's no secret that this method of leading has its detractors.

Visionary Leadership

This kind of leader appreciates the abilities and requirements of his team members. He describes his ideal outcome and the teamwork that will be necessary to attain it.

Coaching Leadership

Leaders who coach their teams do so regularly in an effort to raise output. He inspires his employees to do better and works to keep them motivated. This approach to leadership has been much praised.

Facilitative Leadership

With occasional guidance, a facilitative leader ensures that the process runs smoothly for his team. As a precaution in case his team is ineffective. If the team is highly effective, the leader will take a hands-off approach.

Cross-Cultural Leadership

The leadership of this type is necessary when interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds. Because of the wide variety of cultures represented in the workforce across the United States, many managers and executives hold cross-cultural positions.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

The members of the team are given responsibility in this style of management. They are free to choose how they spend their time at work, with minimal oversight from the boss. It's not a good way to lead, according to experts.

Transactional Leadership

An interactive approach is integral to this kind of leadership. When team members successfully implement their leader's ideas and choices, they are rewarded with immediate, material benefits.

Charismatic Leadership

In order to bring out the best in his followers, this kind of leader makes the effort to change their attitudes, values, and actions.

This article should dispel the notion that leadership qualities can't be further subdivided. It should also assist you in pinpointing your own personal brand of leadership so you can perfect it over time.

Final Words

In conclusion, leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept that involves various qualities and skills. Effective leaders possess traits such as integrity, vision, empathy, decisiveness, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. They are able to navigate challenges, make difficult decisions, and lead their team toward success. Leadership also involves continuous learning and self-improvement, as leaders must adapt to changing circumstances and remain relevant. Effective leadership can have a positive impact on both individuals and organizations, fostering growth and creating a culture of success.

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Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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Anyone Can Learn to Be a Better Leader

• Monique Valcour

You just have to put in the work.

Occupying a leadership position is not the same thing as leading. To lead, you must be able to connect, motivate, and inspire a sense of ownership of shared objectives. Heightening your capacity to lead others requires being able to see how you think and act, and how your behavior affects others. Leading well requires a continuous journey of personal development. Yet people in leadership roles often eschew the long and challenging work of deepening self-insight in favor of chasing after management “tools”— preferably the “quick ’n’ easy” kind, such as personality type assessments that reduce employees to a few simplistic behavioral tendencies. Tools can be handy aids to good leadership. But none of them can take the place of fearless introspection, feedback seeking, and committed efforts to behavioral change for greater effectiveness and increased positive impact on others.

When you’re an individual contributor, your ability to use your technical expertise to deliver results is paramount. Once you’ve advanced into a leadership role, however, the toolkit that you relied on to deliver individual results rarely equips you to succeed through others. Beware of falling into the logical trap of “if I can do this work well, I should be able to lead a team of people who do this work.” This would be true if leading others were akin to operating a more powerful version of the same machinery you operated previously. But it’s not; machinery doesn’t perform better or worse based on what it thinks about you and how you make it feel, while humans do .

• MV Monique Valcour is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and management professor. She helps clients create and sustain fulfilling and high-performance jobs, careers, workplaces, and lives. moniquevalcour

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• School Education /

Essay on Leadership: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 7, 2023

The concept of leadership has been known to us since ancient times, from Ashoka: The Great to modern-day democratic leaders. Whether it’s politics or business, sports or entertainment, leadership is an essential part of human society, Leadership is the art of inspiring and guiding people towards a common goal. 

Critics might argue that being a leader is just about holding a prestigious position and living a fancy life. That might be 1 in 1000 cases, as leaders across the globe work for the welfare and development of their people and country. Below we have discussed some essays on leadership where the multifaceted roles of this position are highlighted. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Leadership in 100 Words
• 2 Essay on Leadership in 200 Words
• 3 Essay on Leadership in 300 Words

Also Read – Essay on Summer Vacation

Essay on Leadership in 100 Words

Leadership involves a set of qualities, values and actions, which are focused on the benefit of people and their country. A person holding the position of a leader plays a pivotal role in every facet of life, influencing the direction and success of organizations, communities, and nations. To become a leader, one must have a clear vision to understand a future state that is better than the present and communicate that vision to their team or followers.

A leader’s actions should be aligned with their words, and they must demonstrate their honesty, transparency and ethical behaviour. Trust is the foundation for any successful leadership, and it is built through consistent ethical conduct. 

Essay on Leadership in 200 Words

Leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept and is an essential part of developing a society or organisation. Leadership can involve various positions and types, from democratic to autocratic, where the leaders inspire and empower their teams, fostering an environment where individuals can thrive and achieve their fullest potential.

Effective leadership involves skilled communicators to can convey ideas, expectations, and feedback clearly and persuasively. They also listen actively to their team’s input and concerns. A great leader empowers a team of professionals by entrusting them with responsibilities and decision-making authority. With the formation of delegates, the power of leadership is divided among different authorities who are responsible for fostering growth and development among team members, making the organization more robust.

Some of the fundamentals of leadership are authenticity, integrity, ethical behaviour, a clear vision and other vital traits. Trust is the bedrock of leadership, and it is built through honesty, transparency, and consistency in actions and decisions. A leader who understands and cares about the needs and concerns of their team fosters strong relationships, promoting collaboration and cohesion.

At last, leadership is more than a title; it’s the embodiment of vision, integrity, empathy, communication and resilience. Effective leaders work to bring positive changes, inspire people around them and create a sense of purpose and direction in their terms and organizations.

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Essay on Leadership in 300 Words

Leadership is a vital concept for the welfare of a society, community or country, depending on what the leadership is about. A leader transcends boundaries and is fundamental to human endeavours in various domains. Their job involves the ability to influence and guide a group of individuals toward achieving a common objective. Effective leadership is characterized by a combination of qualities, skills, and behaviours that inspire, motivate, and empower a team.

The first and most important aspect of a successful leader is having a clear vision. A clear vision works as a guiding light, outlining the desired future and providing a sense of purpose and direction for the team. Leaders with a compelling vision can inspire and rally their followers, creating a shared sense of purpose. 

The other cornerstone of leadership is integrity. Leaders must demonstrate honesty, transparency, and ethical behaviour. Trust, which is essential in any team or organization, is built on the foundation of integrity. When people believe that their leader acts with integrity, they are more likely to follow willingly and commit to the cause. 

Another trait that is essential for effective leadership is empathy. Leaders with empathy understand and connect with the emotions, needs, and perspectives of their team members. By showing compassion and actively listening, they create a supportive and inclusive environment that fosters trust and collaboration.

Apart from these traits, other important qualities for effective leadership include effective communication and interpersonal skills. A leader must be able to articulate their vision, goals, and expectations clearly and persuasively. 

In conclusion, leadership is a multifaceted concept that plays a pivotal role towards the positive growth and development of organizations, communities, and societies. Effective leaders inspire their teams, create a sense of purpose, and drive positive change. Leadership is not merely a position; it is a journey of personal growth and a commitment to serving the greater good.

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Some of the synonyms for a leader are: Coach, Captain, Principal, Chairman, Kingpin, Boss, CEO, etc.

What makes a good leader is their ability to persuade people using their effective communication skills, having a clear vision working towards the welfare of society, and taking responsibility for their actions.

Writing an essay on leadership in 200 words must include the fundamental aspects of leadership and the qualities they must possess. Effective leaders around the world create a supportive and inclusive environment where people can thrive and contribute their best efforts. They inspire a shared sense of purpose, foster collaboration, and guide their teams toward achieving collective goals.

For more information about such informative articles, visit our essay writing page and make sure to follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)

Leadership is a complex concept, but it’s essential for boosting your career. That’s why a leadership essay focuses on applying the theoretical models and concepts of successful management to real-life situations. 

If you don’t know where to start writing such a paper, please read on for professional tips!

What Is Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a paper that analyzes leadership concepts and their application to real-life situations that may involve everyday business management, crisis situations, and other scenarios. 

Every essay on leadership is about defining a concept. Then, it’s either comparing it to similar management tools or proving that it’s useful (or not).

While some students enjoy writing such papers, other learners hate them. The below samples will come in handy, no matter which group is yours.

What Does Leadership Mean to You? (Essay Sample)

It is one of the most popular topics for a leadership essay. If you need to write a paper like that, ask yourself:

• Who is a good leader?  
• What style do they use?  
• What are the situations when they might switch styles?

You may take a more personal approach to such an essay if your professor allows you to. In the example below, you will see the academic approach to this topic. It analyzes three leadership styles to discover which one corresponds to the meaning of leadership if one thinks of it as guidance and support.

Why I Want to Participate in a Leadership Program (Essay Sample)

It’s another example of a popular topic. Such papers often have a meaning beyond the classroom since they may decide whether you plan to participate in a specific program. It’s critical to make them as effective and compelling as possible.

A personalized approach is the best when it comes to essays like this. In the example below, you will see the paper that relies on individual beliefs and a personal life story to explain why it’s so important for the specific student to participate in the chosen program.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

Like every other essay, this paper has an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion summarizing your thoughts. (1) The most important part of the introduction is the final sentence,  aka  a thesis statement. That’s where you state your claim to prove or develop in your leadership essay.

Each body paragraph should correspond to the purpose of your essay. To ensure you don’t stray from the aim you’ve established in the thesis statement, write the topic sentences for all your paragraphs in the outline . In simple words, write the first sentence of every paragraph to define its development in advance and see if you cover everything you need.

And now, to the conclusion:

Its most essential element is thesis restatement or the first sentence of that paragraph. It’s not just paraphrasing your thesis; it’s also considering the new information you’ve discovered while writing the essay.

Structure :

• Introduction (End it with a thesis statement.)
• Body paragraphs (Each one starts with a topic sentence.)
• Conclusion (Start it with a thesis restatement.)

Understand the purpose of a leadership essay

When starting to write, think about why you’re creating this paper. Before you sit down and type the words, think about the ideas you want to convey and their meaning in your life:

Can this essay teach you to take responsibility? Or maybe will it help you understand how to be a leader in crisis situations? When you’ve answered the “why” question, begin outlining.

Build a strong thesis

Always start with your thesis statement. It will help incorporate your answer to that notorious “why” question into your essay. Once done, you can plan out the rest of the paper and start working on the body paragraphs as soon as you finish the introduction.

There’s another important tip —don’t rush into writing the conclusion before you finish everything else!

It might seem like a good idea to create a thesis statement and thesis restatement right off the bat. However, you’ll find yourself with more refreshing ideas after completing all the research and thinking necessary for the introduction and each body paragraph.

Decide on a structure; format accordingly

Even if your essay about leadership seems not so formal, and you can use personal pronouns, you still need a clear structure.

The best way to write any academic paper is to keep your introduction and conclusion as short as possible. (But no shorter than three sentences and four lines of text). 

Another important tip is to try making all your body paragraphs equal in length. That way, you’ll give the same attention to all the vital points of your essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Leadership Now?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the most critical elements of a leadership essay. 

Remember the structure, grammar, and appropriate academic style to create a top-level paper. Please don’t forget to answer the “why” question and remember  why  you’re writing. Then you’ll impress everyone with your results!

References:

• https://lsa.umich.edu/onsf/news-events/all-news/directors-blog/writing-leadership-essays.html
• Essay samples
• Essay writing
• Writing tips

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A Full Guide On How To Create Good Leadership Essay

Attempting a leadership essay isn’t such a daunting task, provided you have a grasp of the necessary information needed for a leadership paper. To write this special essay, you’ll need to redefine what exactly an essay on leadership is, how to choose the perfect topic, what should be in the content, and how to organize and structure the paper. Let’s delve deeper!

What Is A Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a well-formatted, organized and specialized type of formal writing which elaborates on a generic leadership topic or a superior human figure exercising a great influence on people and transmitting desire and optimism to achieve goals.

What Makes A Good Leader Essay?

There are some peculiarities needed to infuse in your write-up if, for example, you’re trying to learn how to write a leadership essay about yourself.

Also, if you’re just trying to produce leadership essays for college, then you’d first and foremost, learn  how to structure an essay , among other skills needed for this type of essay. Here are some qualities which can be found in a good essay about leadership.

• Choose a creative topic
• Avoid the passive voice (the active voice sounds stronger)
• Search for and study leadership essay examples
• Follow the appropriate essay style
• Focus on the essay structure
• Review the essay

How To Choose A Topic And Make A Great Title?

To choose a topic for a paper on leadership, you need to do some research on the concept of a leader (whether in the corporate industry, political society or even in the criminal world). You have to know the current leadership tendencies in organizational groups or society. You can choose to make a leader the point of your reference by explaining the consequences of their leadership abilities or inabilities.

In the body of your essay, don’t forget to mention several types of leadership styles and point out which one the subject portrays. Finally, you should not rule out making comparisons of famous leaders in the modern world or in history. An example of a great prompt for a leadership essay that deploys the comparison technique would be the leadership styles of President Trump and The Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte as both leadership styles have been subjected to political reviews in recent times since their emergence as president of their respective countries.

Outline For A Leadership Essay

When writing a college or professional essay such as -long and short essays on leadership, planning is the key to perfection. The general outline for any essay, including leadership papers, include an introduction, the body paragraphs (which must be properly linked with transition words and/or phrases) and a recapitulating or finding-based conclusions. Here’s what your outline should look like:

Introduction

Knowing how to start a leadership essay depends on your introduction writing ability. The introduction is the gateway to the essay. Aided by punchy opening words, which are the hook, the purpose of the introduction is to draw the reader’s attention. The introduction presents the thesis statement and leaves the body paragraphs to sustain the reader’s interest.

Body Paragraphs

Having informed the readers of the topic of the essay in the introductory paragraph(s), the body paragraphs follow immediately.

Here, you can elaborate on the concept of leadership and do a meaningful interpretation of the subject – the topic or the thesis statement. Don’t forget to talk about your leadership philosophies and leadership experience in whatever capacity you might have found yourself in. Remember, people are more interested in personal experiences. They are great in helping to sustain readers’ attention.

Remember to state a thesis or hypothesis in the opening paragraphs – which is the intro. In each of the body paragraphs of the essay, try to relate your points to the thesis and use each point to prove its validity.

The conclusion is the end part of any well-structured essay. Its purpose is a no-brainer. You don’t want to leave your reader hanging by ending the essay cold turkey. Any standard essay without a conclusion is just as useless as an essay with no purpose. However, be careful not to present new ideas not mentioned in the body.

As mentioned, the conclusion serves to summarize the developed points, restate the thesis and/or present the findings. It is your last opportunity to create an impression on the reader, and this is where they take the message away. If your conclusion is weak, then we might say the essay’s objectives are not achieved.

What To Include In A Leadership Essay?

Here are some tips on what your leadership essay should include.

Your Definition Of A Good Leader And Why He Or She Is Important

Since your essay revolves around leadership and the traits of a good leader, you’ll need to define what it takes to be one. You may also take this opportunity to trash some common myths on what a leader is (i.e., a manager being confused for a leader).

For reference purposes, the concepts of leadership and being a good leader are explained:

Leadership is the quality of a leader and is that person capable of exercising a great influence on people and transmitting desire and optimism to achieve goals. A leader is a guide; someone with ideas and goals that can spread to a large group of people who still believe he or she can lead them in the right direction.

There are many types of leaders and therefore, of leadership since people generally always look for a person or group that shows them a direction to follow. You can find religious, political, social, or philosophical leadership. Leadership can be exercised in a traditional way. In many countries, there is a monarchy. The king or queen is a leader with limited political power, at least in western democracies, but still have the respect and consideration of the people. Their words continue to be heard and taken into account, especially in problematic times. There are other types of leadership that are not given by birth, such as legitimate leadership exercised by, for example, political leaders freely chosen by their people, or charismatic leaders.

In a way, charismatic leaders are what many understand as leaders since they are people who, by their way of behavior and characteristics, get many people to follow and adhere to their ideas. Some charismatic leaders can become legitimate leaders if they choose the path of politics. A traditional leader can also be charismatic. There have always been kings loved by his people more than others. But it can also be a person who prefers independent movements outside of power.

Charisma is the personal magnetism a person has. It is something very difficult to define but makes one capable of convincing others without too much effort, making people follow and trust the leading figure. Charisma can be used positively or negatively. The leaders of the most destructive sects are very charismatic people that are capable of convincing their followers of the eeriest ideas, including donating all their belongings or committing collective suicide.

Examples Of Your Leadership Style

In the content of your essay, you may consider giving an interpretation to your (or your chosen leader’s) leadership traits. Below are some examples of leadership qualities that separate a good leader from a bad leader.

What qualities are necessary for leadership

• Communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Strategic thinking
• Commitment and passion
• Knowledge and experience
• Leading by example
• Active listening
• Ability to enhance talent
• Setting goals and expectations
• People investment
• Discernment
• Concentration
• Positive attitude
• Problem-solving
• Self-discipline

Leadership Essay Example

To know how to do essay fast, you’ll need some ready-made essay examples for the sake of guidance and inspiration. You may find below a leadership essay written by Oliver Smith useful in your leadership paper.

Writing a leadership essay should be easy. A good essay on leadership starts from the hook, and the thesis statement in the introduction. The points developed in the body paragraphs help affirm the hypothesis. Finally, the conclusion offers the reader a summary through the restatement of the essay’s main idea.

As required for every essay type, your essay on leadership has to follow a definite style and format. Examples are MLA, APA, Chicago and AP styles. Take your time in choosing a creative but new topic and also in writing the content. By following this guide, everything should be as perfect as possible.

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• Essay Writing Guides

Your Complete Guide to Writing a Compelling Leadership Essay

True leadership lies at the heart of human well-being and success. Every positive step humanity ever took required great and responsible leadership. Therefore, people have studied leadership for many edges to unravel its different underlying factors. 

But how do you write a great essay that demonstrates your grasp of this sacred call? This post shares practical insights on how to write a leadership essay . Keep reading it to sharpen your skills in this assignment niche. 

What Is a Leadership Essay ?

Before proceeding to see how best to draft a perfect leadership essay, let’s answer the big question, “ What is leadership essay ?” A leadership essay is an assignment that falls under student application essays. This paper provides student admission officers with insight into your previous leadership experience. 

While this assignment appears to be specific, it acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can greatly vary depending on context and individuals. 

Leadership Essay Ideas and Topics

Selecting the best topics for your essays on leadership is vital. When composing this paper, you will focus on two main areas revolving around your leadership style and the memorable moment when you demonstrated leadership. Please note that these two areas usually overlap because while recounting that moment you demonstrated leadership, you will also show your leadership style. 

Whichever area you choose to focus on, use anecdotal evidence that proves the idea. Here, you can freely go with what feels best for you. Just ensure that the instance you use to demonstrate leadership is a real-life experience. This way, you will be best placed to choose a topic that makes your readers enjoy your paper.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

While this paper might sound like an introduction on leadership essay , it doesn’t mean you aren’t a leader or can’t lead people. So, how do you compose a killer leadership essay that impresses student admission officials? Here are ideas on how to write leadership essay that fetches good grades and makes a positive impression of your leadership potential. 

• As earlier hinted, you must research to choose a good topic that will impress your readers and portray you as an upcoming great leader.
• When writing about a leadership concept, take notes of some credible sources of information. Find out what others have written about that topic.  
• Outline your essay to organize all the details you want to include. This way, you won’t forget to include anything your readers need. 

Alternatively, you can check out past papers written on your chosen leadership topics. This way, you will have a strong basis for further expansion of your arguments and incorporating relevant ideas into your paper. However, remember to follow intellectual property laws to avoid plagiarism.

Formatting Your Leadership Essay

Your essay about leadership requires correct formatting to ensure everything flows well. Like other types of papers, leadership essays follow a five-paragraph pattern. It has an introduction, a body section, and a conclusion, depending on its word count or page limits.  

• Introduction: This section captures the reader’s interest, defines good leadership in relation to you, and directly addresses the given prompt.
• Body paragraphs: The body section gives some background information using anecdotes to describe your leadership style or moment.
• Conclusion: This finishing section is a compelling statement about your leadership attributes and capabilities. It also shows how you hope to apply them to your life and solve other people’s problems.

Tips for Writing a Leadership Essay

Do you want tips to help you write the best leadership essays that will garner good grades? Here are tips and insights to help you compose excellent leadership essays .

Define Good Leadership First

It would be best to define good leadership before proceeding. Take time to think about the best attributes that make one a great leader. Of these qualities you have figured out, which ones do you have? Outline the qualities you demonstrated in your memorable leadership moment. These attributes could be, but aren’t limited to:

• The ability to motivate and inspire others.
• Valuing others.

Lastly, review your list and select the traits you would wish to focus on. 

Moderate Your Humility 

Humility is an invaluable virtue that needs to flow through your papers. However, don’t overdo it when highlighting your leadership moment. So, draw the line between humility and self-humiliation. Just let your readers know what you did to benefit other people’s lives—period.

Don’t Use Another Person’s Voice and Style

When highlighting your leadership abilities and experience, remember to use your personal style and voice. Admission officers want to hear your voice and “see you” in the essay. Thus, allow them to see your personality in the paper the best way you know how to put it. You can use your reasonable sense of humor without overstepping boundaries. 

Tell a Story About Your Journey 

When addressing college admission officers, use your storytelling skills to describe your leadership journey. Give them an engaging story that shows them your true leadership potential. Your story should exhibit the traits you believe are instrumental in helping you lead others. The narrative should tell the readers about the following:

• That you faced a real-life challenge.
• How you solved the problem. 
• How your leadership style and potential have grown over the years.
• Any specific challenge or moment that has helped you grow in your leadership. 

Choose a Case in Which You Played a Key Role

Your leadership doesn’t necessarily mean you are always at the help of things or people. Instead, it means that you helped solve a problem that affected others. Thus, don’t fear highlighting a moment just because you were not calling the shots. Why? Because the officials are looking for the results you helped bring to the table and not necessarily the position you occupied in the story. 

Thus, you should focus more on the improved position others found themselves in after your intervention instead of the position you occupied. Also, don’t mind more about the story’s title, especially when brainstorming. If you tell an impactful story, the title will automatically fall in place. 

Acknowledge Other People’s Contributions

We said in previous sections that you should tell the reader more about your leadership skills and journey. Up to this point, so good. However, you shouldn’t become so egoistic that you assume you aren’t an island. Your personal statement should indeed be personal, but it’s better to remember that other people still have a stake in your journey. 

So, give other people their deserved credit wherever they contributed to your success. Credit others for their loyalty, hard work, and any insights they offer. This way, you will portray your leadership as inclusive and not a one-man army that gives all the credit to one man. 

Solve Problems

Lastly, your essay should focus on solving problems. There is no point in telling a long story if it doesn’t bring out this element. Why? Because leadership essentially solves other people’s problems. If this element is missing, then you were not leading. Most likely, you were merely occupying a position or exercising authority but not leading. 

Do you remember how you solved that issue on your team amicably? Did you negotiate peace between team members whose rift was threatening to tear the team apart? Then, tell it out because that is all the admission officers are looking for in the narrative. 

Leadership Essay Example

Nothing will power your leadership writing skills like a perfect example of leadership essay . This section has three excellent excerpts from the introductions, bodies, and conclusions of leadership papers. 

• Introduction 

The floor was full of press cameras and microphones ready to capture a critical event. The venue was filled with different types of furniture, leather seats, and the who-is-who in the media industry that could change the entire media industry. Until then, I never saw myself as a leader, although I knew that this event was bigger than me, a moment that I could positively influence for the benefit of everyone present.

Gaining experience is one of the pillars of growing up in one’s leadership journey. The reason is that leadership isn’t a theory or concept captured in the heads, arguments, or counterarguments of so-called leadership gurus. Instead, it’s about practical life engagements that solve people’s problems in the real world. Thus, experience is the best tool to provide leaders with the opportunities to face and solve problems, make sound decisions, and learn from their failures and successes. All great leaders cherish such experiences and use them to grow and develop their leadership. 

• Conclusion 

In my view, leadership is about solving problems and meeting people’s needs, period. That’s the big picture, and the rest are minor details. My ability to empathize with others and give them a helping hand instead of pointing fingers at them summarizes my leadership philosophy. I hope to use this drive to be on the solution side of life, to prescribe solutions instead of just describing and decrying problems. 

Final Word 

Do you want to boost your writing skills on the topic of leadership? We’ve created this post to give you valuable and practical insights to accelerate your leadership research and writing journey. We hope you will use them to compose a perfect essay on effective leadership .

• Academic Writing Guides

Essays About Effective Leadership: Top 6 Examples and Prompts

Effective leadership is an essential trait that all people should strive to develop; here are 6 examples and topic ideas essays about effective leadership .

Many qualities make an inspiring and effective leader, such as vision, focus, and motivation . Like other skills, effective leadership can be innate or learned and practiced. When writing about leadership , include the strengths of an effective leader and how these qualities positively impact their team. You can also discuss weaknesses that can make a poor leader and how to combat these issues.

Here are 6 examples and 10 essay prompts to get you started on your next essay.

1. What Makes an Effective Leader? by Tony Gill

2. a guide to becoming an effective leader by yashi srivastava , 3. leadership: 5 practices of effective leaders by yvette gyles, 4. 6 characteristics of an effective leader by lauren landry, 5. six leadership lessons by order of the peaky blinders by andrew denton mbe, 6. leadership and the quest for certainty by keith grint,  1. what is effective leadership, 2. what does effective leadership look like in the corporate industry, 3. what to avoid to become an effective leader, 4. habits of an effective leader, 5. studying the mindsets of effective leaders, 6. effective leadership and its benefits to an organization, 7. indicators of strong and effective leadership, 8. poor leadership vs. effective leadership, 9. real-life examples of effective leadership, 10. how perception creates effective leadership.

“Work at using leadership styles that do not come naturally, styles that you find difficult. By becoming a well-rounded leader, it is easier to adapt your leadership technique for different situations.”

Gill uses a research-based approach to answer the central question of his essay. He looks at various sources that tackle the topic of effective leadership and stitch them together to make a comprehensive guide to effective leadership .

“ Leadership is not a mystical quality, and anyone can become a more effective leader by developing some important skills.”

The author, Yashi Srivastava, defines what differentiates leaders from managers first. Then, she provides some dos and don’ts of an effective leader and how people could apply them in different situations. 

“Whereas as leaders, we need to be concerned about creativity and innovation, making positive changes, and seeking to challenge and push boundaries.”

Gyles specializes in leadership training for companies, so her approach to the essay is geared more toward company leaders. Nevertheless, it’s highly educational for all those interested in learning effective leadership meant for dealing with various people and guiding people to a direction or goal.

“ Effective leaders don’t avoid the hard truths. Instead, they take responsibility for their decisions, maintain optimism, and focus on charting a new course of action.”

Landry’s essay focuses on her six top characteristics of an effective leader. Some of these characteristics are what you’d expect to see in an essay like this. Entries like transparency are less common but equally important in practicing effective leadership .

“Rolling your sleeves up with everyone else not only sets an example, it makes people want to follow you.”

Fiction mirrors life, and it’s one of the best sources to learn lessons that are otherwise too complex or vague to see in real life. Despite his penchant for crime and violence, Thomas Shelby is undeniably one of the most influential leaders on TV. This essay details the leadership skills used by a 1920s gangster character and how you can use them in modern life to become an effective and inspiring leader.

“ Leadership is often associated with certainty; indeed, it is sometimes reduced to the decision-making process such that anything which smacks of uncertainty is categorized as weakness or a failure of leadership .”  

Grint’s essay on leadership explores the factors around leaders’ certainty or confidence. Of course, not all leaders have a clear answer to a problem, which is fine. The important thing is that they have a mindset to look for solutions and a modicum of honesty about their lack of uncertainty.

10 Essay Prompts on Effective Leadership

It’s your turn to express and explore your view of effective leadership . Use these prompts to work out your approach or steps to effective leadership . Here are ten prompts about effective leadership to help you get started on your essay.

Defining effective leadership is one way to explore your understanding of the idea. Remember that your definition of effective leadership could vastly differ from the other essays you’ve read. It’s also a great starting point for new people who want to warm up to the habit of writing essays about leadership.

Essay writing tip: If you’re new to writing essays, consider simplifying your essay. Try shortening it down to a five-paragraph essay .

You can find many leaders in the corporate industry, but some are more effective than others. Use this prompt to work out how you envision effective leadership in the corporate world. You can also apply the same idea to other fields, like at school, among friends or peer groups, or in the family. Consider carefully the field or organization you’d like to use for the essay.

You may have personal experience with a person who could have been an effective leader if not for their bad habits. You might have been that person and realized how your bad habits had held you back from practicing effective leadership . This is your chance to write about your experience, whether via observing someone else or through personal growth.

Practicing effective leadership goes beyond having direction and a vision for the organization. Becoming an effective leader also takes time and patience. Use this prompt to discuss the habits of great leaders and how these habits make them effective in their leadership .

Get into the mind of a leader and explore how such a person might become more effective in their leadership . This topic may involve discussing various people, whether real-life persons or fictional characters. Research how they think, handle their role and manage the people they lead.

Understanding the benefits of effective leadership is one of the best ways to drive someone to practice and adopt it. Use this prompt to detail how an effective leader boosts morale, productivity, motivation , communication quality, and confidence in the people they lead. It applies to all organizations, like businesses, teams, and networks.

How do you know whether a person’s leadership style and approach are effective or not? Use this essay topic to discover the different methods of measuring effective leadership . Read about the different measurements and indicators of leadership used in corporations and organizations.

Leaders can be good, mediocre, or bad in their leadership approaches and styles. This essay prompt will push you to compare bad leadership and effective leadership . You can also add methods of improving one’s leadership style to become more effective .

You can find a lot of excellent leaders throughout history. This idea focuses on discussing different leaders, their leadership styles, and levels of effectiveness.

Interpersonal skills are vital to great leadership . Perception of others’ feelings and thoughts can help you become an even better and more effective leader. Discuss how intuitiveness positively affects one’s leadership style. 

Check out our list of great essay writing topics for students for more topics to improve your writing.

Leadership Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on leadership.

First of all, Leadership refers to the quality of leading people. Probably, it is one of the most important aspects of life. Above all, Leadership has led to the progress of human civilization . Without good Leadership, no organization or group can succeed. Furthermore, not everyone has this quality. This is because effective Leadership requires certain important characteristics.

Qualities of a Good Leader

First of all, confidence is the most quality. A leader must have strong self-confidence. A person lacking in confidence can never be a good leader. A person must be confident enough to ensure others follow him. The leader must have confidence in his decisions and actions. If he is unsure, then how can people have the desire to follow him.

A good leader must certainly inspire others. A leader must be a role model for his followers. Furthermore, he must motivate them whenever possible. Also, in difficult situations, a leader must not lose hope. How can a leader inspire people if he himself is hopeless?

Honesty is another notable quality of a leader. Honesty and Integrity are important to earn the love of followers. Above all, honesty is essential to win the trust of the people. Probably, every Leadership which loses trust is bound to fail. People will not work with full effort due to an immoral leader.

Good communication is a must for a good leader. This is because poor communication means the wrong message to followers. Furthermore, good communication will increase the rate of work. Also, the chances of mistakes by followers will reduce.

Another important quality is decision making. Above all, if a leader makes poor decisions then other qualities will not matter. Furthermore, good decision making ensures the success of the entire group. If the leader makes poor decisions, then the efforts of followers won’t matter.

A good leader must be an excellent innovator. He must display a creative attitude in his work. Most noteworthy, innovation is a guarantee of survival of a group or innovation. Without creative thinking, progress is not possible.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Real-Life Examples of Good Leadership

Mahatma Gandhi was an excellent example of a good leader. He was a staunch believer in non-violence. With his brilliant Leadership skills, he made the British leave India. Probably, this was the most unique independence struggle. This is because Gandhi got freedom without any violence.

Abraham Lincoln was another notable leader. Most noteworthy, he ended the slavery system in the United States. Consequently, he made many enemies. However, he was a man of massive self-confidence. His struggle against slavery certainly became an inspiration.

Sir Winston Churchill was a great patriotic Englishman. Most noteworthy, he led Britain in the 2nd World War. Furthermore, he was extremely inspirational. He inspired Britain to fight against Nazi Germany. His great communication motivated the entire country at a time of hopelessness.

To conclude, Leadership is required in probably every sphere of life. Good leadership is the door to success. In contrast, bad leadership is a guarantee of failure. Consequently, good leaders are what make the world go round.

FAQs on Leadership

Q.1 Which is the most important quality for being a good leader? A.1 The most important quality for being a good leader is self-confidence.

Q.2 Why Sir Winston Churchill is a good leader? A.2 Sir Winston Churchill is a good leader because he inspired Britain to fight in 2nd World War. Furthermore, his excellent communication also raised the motivation of his people.

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Guide to Writing a Stellar Leadership Essay (With Essay on Leadership Examples)

Apr 5, 2024 | 0 comments

Apr 5, 2024 | Blog | 0 comments

 Writing a leadership essay can be daunting for many students, as it requires a deep understanding of what makes a great leader and how to effectively convey those characteristics to a reader. To excel in this type of assignment, one must first understand the qualities that make a good leader, such as communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and the ability to inspire others. Additionally, it is important to provide specific examples and anecdotes supporting your claims and demonstrating your leadership experience. This article will explore the key components of a successful leadership essay, including how to structure your essay, develop a strong thesis statement, and effectively incorporate evidence to support your arguments. By following these tips and guidelines, you will be well on your way to crafting a compelling and persuasive leadership essay that showcases your unique qualities as a leader. 

How To Write A Leadership Essay: Step-by-Step Guide

Crafting a standout leadership essay requires a methodical approach that covers key stages, from understanding the prompt to polishing your final draft. In the sections below, we’ll guide you through the step-by-step process of writing an impactful leadership essay that showcases your unique perspective and qualifications.

College Application Essay Writing Help

Are you struggling to craft a leadership essay that truly captures your unique experiences and qualifications? Our step-by-step guide and expert college application essay writing help will transform your leadership narrative and propel you towards your dreams!

Step 1: Understanding the Essay Prompt

When crafting a standout leadership essay, the first step is to understand the prompt or instructions given thoroughly. Whether you’re writing a college application essay, a scholarship essay, or a general essay on leadership, it’s crucial to analyze the prompt and identify the key points and requirements.

What exactly are the admissions officers or evaluators looking for? Are they interested in your leadership abilities, experiences in a leadership position, or your idea of leadership in general? Carefully dissecting the prompt will help you determine the focus of your essay and ensure that you address all the necessary elements.

Once you have a solid grasp of the prompt, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas. What are the most significant leadership roles you’ve held? What examples of leadership best showcase your kind of leadership and leadership style? Jot down any relevant experiences, skills, or insights you can potentially incorporate into your essay.

Step 2: Research and Preparation

With the prompt in mind, it’s time to dive into your research and preparation. Start by gathering relevant information and sources to help you build a strong foundation for your essay. This might include academic articles on leadership and management, biographies of influential leaders, or even interviews with team members who have witnessed your good leadership in action.

Consider conducting your interviews or surveys to gain first-hand insights into your leadership abilities. Talking to members of the team you’ve led or colleagues who have observed your ways of leading can provide valuable perspectives that you can weave into your essay.

As you gather your research, begin organizing and outlining your essay. This will help you structure your thoughts and ensure that your essay flows logically from one point to the next. Consider the key elements of a well-structured leadership essay: the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Step 3: Structure of a Leadership Essay

Introduction

The introduction of your leadership essay is your chance to hook the reader and set the tone for the rest of your writing. It’s important to start strong and grab the reader’s attention from the first sentence.

One effective way to begin is with a compelling hook. This could be a thought-provoking quote about leadership, an anecdote that illustrates your unique leadership style, or a startling statistic highlighting the importance of good leadership. The goal is to pique the reader’s interest and make them eager to learn more about your perspective on leadership.

After the hook, you’ll want to provide some background information on leadership. This could include a brief overview of the concept of leadership, the key traits of a leader, or the significance of leadership and management in various contexts. Aim to give the reader a solid foundation for understanding the core themes and ideas you’ll explore in your essay.

Finally, you’ll want to introduce your thesis statement. This single sentence should clearly articulate your essay’s central message or argument, setting the stage for the rest of your writing. Your thesis should reflect your unique idea of leadership and the specific leadership abilities or experiences you plan to highlight.

Body Paragraphs

The body of your leadership essay is where you’ll explore your examples of leadership and leadership experiences in more detail. Each body paragraph should focus on a specific aspect of your kind of leadership, using concrete examples to support your claims.

Begin each paragraph with a clear topic sentence introducing the main idea or argument you’ll explore. From there, use vivid details, anecdotes, and evidence to paint a picture of your leadership style in action.

For instance, you might dedicate a paragraph to discussing when you had to lead a group and inspire others to achieve a common goal. Describe the situation, the challenges you faced, the actions you took, and the outcomes you achieved. This will demonstrate your leadership abilities and give the reader a deeper understanding of what your leadership means.

Another body paragraph might explore the leadership theories or styles that have influenced your own kind of leader. How have these ideas shaped your approach to problem-solving and decision-making? What examples of leadership can you draw upon to illustrate these principles in practice?

Throughout your body paragraphs, maintain a clear and logical flow. Use smooth transitions to guide the reader from one idea to the next and ensure that each paragraph builds upon the previous one to create a cohesive and compelling narrative.

The conclusion of your leadership essay is your final opportunity to leave a lasting impression on the reader. Here, you’ll want to synthesize the key points of your essay and reinforce the significance of your leadership in essential experiences.

Begin by freshly restating your thesis statement , reminding the reader of the central message or argument you’ve been exploring. This helps to bring your essay full circle and solidify the main takeaway for the reader.

Next, summarize the most important examples of leadership and leadership abilities you’ve discussed throughout your essay. Highlight the key lessons you’ve learned and how your idea of leadership has evolved. This demonstrates your leadership ability and commitment to continuous growth and improvement.

Finally, conclude your essay by reflecting on the broader importance of good leadership. How do your personal experiences and insights relate to the larger concept of leadership? Why is it crucial for individuals to develop strong leadership skills to inspire people and accomplish the task? By connecting your essay to a larger societal or global context, you’ll leave the reader with a deeper appreciation for the value of leadership.

School Application Essay Writing Help

Feeling overwhelmed by the task of writing a standout school application essay that highlights your leadership abilities? Our proven step-by-step guide and personalized essay writing assistance will help you craft a compelling narrative that leaves a lasting impression on admissions committees.

Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Leadership Essay

As you craft your leadership essay, keep the following dos and don’ts in mind:

• Maintain a professional yet engaging tone throughout your writing.
• Provide specific, real-life examples of your leadership roles and experiences.
• Demonstrate your emotional intelligence and ability to solve problems effectively.
• Highlight your personal growth and how your leadership style has evolved over time.
• Proofread your essay thoroughly to ensure it is free of grammatical and spelling errors.
• Avoid using clichés or generic statements about leadership.
• Refrain from making unsupported claims or exaggerating your experiences.
• Don’t simply recite your resume or list your achievements; focus on the why and how behind your leadership abilities.
• Steer clear of overly personal or irrelevant information that doesn’t directly support your main argument.
• Remember to address any potential weaknesses or challenges you’ve faced as a leader and how you’ve learned from them.

Tips for Writing a Successful Leadership Essay

• Be Authentic and Genuine in Your Writing: Avoid sounding like you’re trying to fit a certain mold or meet expectations. Let your unique leadership style and personality shine through in your writing. Share personal anecdotes and reflections that showcase your leadership abilities. Demonstrate your emotional intelligence by being vulnerable and self-aware. Your writing allows the reader to experience your leadership roles and various leadership experiences.
• Show Rather Than Tell Your Leadership Qualities: Use vivid descriptions and specific examples of leadership to illustrate how you’ve exhibited effective leadership qualities. Avoid generic statements or clichés about what it means to be a successful leader. Demonstrate your ability to lead by showing the impact of your actions and decisions. Incorporate data, statistics, quotes from essay samples or other credible sources to bolster your arguments. Provide specific details about the challenges you faced, your actions, and the outcomes you achieved as a leader.
• Use Concrete Examples and Evidence: Support your claims about your leadership abilities with real-life anecdotes and experiences. Use vivid language and sensory details to help the reader visualize your leadership experiences. Avoid vague or generalized statements that lack substance or ability to make a strong impact. Highlight the leadership abilities and styles most relevant to the role model or opportunity you’re seeking. Demonstrate how your use of my leadership experiences and qualities make you the ideal candidate for the leadership position or application essay you’re pursuing.
• Tailor Your Essay to the Specific Audience or Purpose: Research the admissions officers or business environment you’re writing for and understand their idea of leadership. Align your essay with the specific requirements or type of essay outlined in the prompt. Adjust your tone, language, and focus to resonate with the intended audience and their leadership is often expected. Demonstrate how your leadership abilities and unique leadership style can contribute to the organization or institution you’re applying to. Emphasize the specific leadership qualities and traits of a leader most valued in the type of leadership you’re pursuing.

Leadership Essay Examples

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How To Write A Leadership Essay FAQs

How should i start a leadership essay.

To begin a leadership essay, define what effective leadership means to you. Consider what qualities a true leader must possess and how you have experienced or observed leadership. A captivating anecdote or leadership essay example can grab the reader’s attention and set the tone for your essay.

What is the structure of a leadership essay?

A typical leader essay should have a well-organized structure. Start with an engaging introduction introducing your thesis statement about what makes a strong leader. Then, support your argument with specific examples and detail different leadership styles. Conclude your essay by summarizing your main points and reinforcing your stance on leadership development.

How do you write an introduction for leadership?

When crafting an introduction for a leader essay, grab the reader’s attention with a compelling hook related to leadership. Clearly state your thesis on what qualities make an effective leader. You can also tease some of the main points you will discuss in your essay, such as leading by example, leadership allows, and bad leadership.

How do I write about my leadership?

In writing about your leadership experiences, focus on specific instances where you demonstrated leadership qualities. Reflect on how you could look inward and recognize areas for improvement. Explain how you were able to inspire others and develop your leadership skills. Avoid vague statements and instead provide concrete examples.

What makes an effective leader?

An effective leader possesses strong technical skills and can develop people and teams. A true leader should lead by example and inspire others through their actions. Understanding different leadership styles and adapting to situations is crucial for a successful leader.

Through my engaging and informative blog posts, I aim to provide helpful tips on topics such as essay writing, research skills, and academic planning, empowering students to thrive in their academic pursuits.

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What Does It Mean to Be a Leader? Essay

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Introduction

Action despite crises, the lack of desire for leadership, works cited.

The concept of leadership has become blurry today since this term is often used not as an indicator of a leading person who can guide people but as the definition of an ordinary manager. Nevertheless, based on the ideas of different authors, it is possible to draw a deeper conclusion about what it means to be a leader and what qualities are required for it. Most researchers agree that the leader is the one who has strong qualities that are necessary to perform specific tasks. Therefore, it is essential for such a person to not only stand at the head of a certain group or organization but also to be responsible for any taken decisions and actions.

When calling someone a leader, people mean that he or she stands a step above them and knows how to give clear directions and monitor the performance of work. As Lowney remark, a person who encourages others to perform certain tasks and is able to help to solve a problem on his or her own can be called a leader (17). At the same time, it seems to most people that leadership is an inherent feature.

Nevertheless, experience shows that any action that brings the team closer to achieving the intended goal is an act of leadership. The more actively this or that person is ready to undertake the given work even in times of crisis, for example, experiencing the lack of money or time, the higher the chance is that his or her efforts will be evaluated. Perhaps, it is this approach that reflects the true essence of leadership. Therefore, managing does not mean leading, and this statement can be considered from different angles, including both philosophical and practical ones.

Despite the fact that some people voluntarily give up the role of leader, it is necessary to recognize that the desire to transfer responsibility to someone else is a natural intention. However, according to Cronin, if there is no desire to lead people, it can be developed by studying the biographies of famous personalities and drawing conclusions from their experience (31). Perhaps, the success stories of other people can motivate many to achieve their goals and not to be afraid to solve problems. After all, it is precisely this task that confronts leaders – to take responsibility for making a decision and organizing people with a view to taking joint measures.

It is hard to imagine a leader who does everything by himself or herself. Certainly, this initiative should be encouraged. Nevertheless, as Bass claims, leadership is a motivation focused primarily on groups, and despite the fact that the personality plays an essential role here, the main task is to mobilize joint efforts to solve the set tasks (38). If a particular person has this skill, he or she can be called a leader with great probability.

Thus, one of the primary qualities inherent in a competent leader is the ability to organize joint activities of people, taking specific measures not only alone but also motivating people for certain efforts. The experience of famous personalities can be useful when analyzing the basic directions of development and qualities that are needed. The concept of the manager and the leader cannot be considered identical, especially today, since they have a slightly different essence.

Bass, Bernard M. “The Meaning of Leadership.” The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages , edited by J. Thomas Wren, Simon & Schuster, 2013, pp. 37-38.

Cronin, Thomas E. “Thinking and Learning About Leadeship.” The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages , edited by J. Thomas Wren, Simon & Schuster, 2013, pp. 27-32.

Lowney, Chris. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World . Loyola Press, 2010.

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How to Write Leadership Essay in College

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If there is one skill that is revered across educational institutions and organizations, it is leadership.

Being the boss or in a position of power is not enough to make you a good leader. Effective leadership comes from the impact you have on people, the respect you garner, and how you manage to walk the talk.

Owing how important the role leadership plays in our personal and professional life, it’s no surprise that students are asked to write leadership essays in college.

The purpose of this assignment is to get them to understand the concept of leadership, reflect on their own experiences, or even assess the leadership style of a prominent leader. Apart from writing skills, this assignment also puts students’ critical thinking skills to the test.

This article will tell you what goes into a good leadership outline, along with 12 practical essay writing tips.

12 Tips on How to Write a Good Leadership Essays

If you think you can go ahead and write an essay on your favorite leader, you are mistaken - grade 5 is long gone.

Leadership essay writing is a lot more layered. It requires you to demonstrate your understanding of the concept excitingly and back it up with solid examples and research.

Don’t panic. Here are 12 tips to help you write powerful and effective leadership essays.

Brainstorm interesting topic ideas

If you are fortunate, you will be given a specific leadership essay topic to write on, but most of the time, students are given the flexibility to come up with a topic of their choice.

Leadership essays need to be personal. By the end of it, the reader needs to understand your leadership abilities. Now you can throw light on that aspect of yourself by recounting your leadership experiences, relating it to the leadership style of a prominent leader, or even comparing two leaders. Regardless of your chosen topic, it’s important to connect it back to yourself.

So, start with enlisting potential topic ideas that would help you throw light on your leadership abilities. Don’t rush through this step - take your time to pick a suitable topic.

Think out-of-the-box

Surprise your audience by thinking of innovative topics and ideas for your leadership essay.

Plain and dull essays are predictable and can get boring after being overused by multiple students for their multiple essays. Your professors can also feel that you are trying to play it safe by not thinking outside the box and giving you an average grade for your essay.

Extraordinary and new ideas get the attention they deserve, and your readers are more likely to find them interesting and get hooked on your essay right at the beginning.

Hook the reader

The introductory paragraph is a crucial one as it lays the foundation for the rest of the essay. Does your introduction entice the reader to know more, or does it induce yawns? It all depends on how you choose to begin your essay.

It’s essential to start with a bang and write an interesting hook from the first sentence. A good hook is written in 1 - 2 sentences and manages to get the reader interested. You can start with a funny experience, raise a startling question, or state an interesting fact - there are various ways to begin your leadership essay and capture the reader’s attention.

Use active voice

“I performed the task with great precision” vs. “The task was performed with great precision” - what is more impactful in the context of leadership essays? The former one.

Unlike an essay or any other academic paper, leadership essays are meant to be personal. They are supposed to be about you. As you share your perspective or experiences, you should use an active voice to make a more significant impact and ensure your message reaches the reader.

Follow the format

Adhere to your academic institution's standards for formatting and styling your leadership essay because, first and foremost, your professors would want to see that you have tackled how to format your essay.

Secondly, it is always good practice to format your essays for an excellent structure and a good presentation of the content in the essay. Some institutions are very strict about their formatting standards and can choose to cancel or give unsatisfactory grades to students who do not follow their specific formatting guidelines.

Avoid cliches

Generally, in leadership essays, cliches are most commonly used to describe the person in the essay at large. Avoiding these set cliches will do you and your essay good.

Cliches like “leaves no stones unturned,” “ahead of the curve,” etc., have been used so much by students that they have become weak, lost their meaning, and have minimal effect on the essays.

Your professors are looking for originality and creativity, whereas an essay full of cliches will appear lazy and uncreative.

Select good references

Leadership holds a variety of sub-topics that addresses the quality of leadership, the style and attitudes that leaders have, historical references of the lifework of distinguished leaders, or how certain leaders influenced events.

That’s why researching is key for a thorough leadership essay. With credible sources and references to take inspiration and quotes from, your leadership essay will gain authority and stature. Each method, skill, or event can be further detailed through helpful resources such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, etc.

Ask questions

Ask yourself questions while re-reading your essay to identify any missing pieces you may have overlooked.

Asking questions also address your essay's efficiency and will help you figure out what your readers could ask while reading your essay. You can then confront each of these questions and create a more precise understanding for your readers.

Share anecdotes

Another element that can really strengthen your leadership essay and take it from good to great is anecdotes.

Yes, don’t shy away from sharing anecdotes and personal experiences related to leadership. It adds credibility to your writing and justifies the points you have made. It can be humorous or life-changing, but sharing anecdotes helps keep readers invested and adds immense value to the essay.

Here’s a helpful video by Matthew Singleton on how you can use anecdotes while writing essays

Focus on key qualities

We know how effective leadership constitutes certain key traits and qualities such as empathy, collaboration, good listener, visionary, ownership, decision-making capabilities, delegation, communicator, and more.

Your essay needs to reflect some of these traits. Instead of choosing to enlist all these traits and not focussing on either of them well, it’s important to first choose which are the traits you want to explore in your essay and then work towards highlighting them while writing.

Get feedback

It is always better to have more than one pair of eyes to read and evaluate your essay. Getting feedback on your writing is crucial for the betterment of your essay, as the limitations and problems that you may not have realized while writing your essay can be identified by a fresh set of eyes or a new perspective.

These errors or misses can be rectified, resulting in a quality, no-error leadership essay.

Edit and proofread

A leadership essay requires attention to detail, a set organized structure, and a logical flow of sentences. Editing your essay and proofreading it will overcome any misses that may come your way.

As you proofread, you can double-check the leader’s name and designation, dates, sources, factual, spelling, and grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, out-of-place references, and transition flows.

So, now you know that leadership essays are not as ‘vanilla’ as they sound. They need to be descriptive and logical while capturing your leadership abilities.

If you don’t have the time to write a compelling leadership essay or doubt your writing skills, don’t worry. We at Writers Per Hour are pleased to write an essay for you that will get you noticed.

From choosing a suitable topic to outlining and writing a thoughtful leadership essay from scratch, our writing experts promise to deliver precisely what you need - high-quality essays that meet your budget and deadlines.

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On Gratitude and Leadership

By  Adriana Bankston

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Over the last several years, I have had the privilege of participating in or leading teams in various capacities. But I don’t think I ever quite realized how grateful I should be for such opportunities. Someone took a chance on me and allowed me to learn and grow personally and professionally alongside them, as well as gave me independence to pursue my own interests. That helped me make the transition from an inexperienced graduate student to an independent researcher.

I have always felt grateful to my mentors but never quite articulated it out loud. That is one of the issues with academe today: we expect certain things from our principal investigators, and if we are lucky enough to have a great mentor (as I did in graduate school), we should thank them for what they did for us and not take them for granted.

While working in the lab, I knew my place within the team and, as a naive early graduate student, I at first saw my PI as “the boss” who could do no wrong. Then later on, as I grew more confident, I realized that having an opinion (even if it was wrong) was better than not having one. I was lucky enough to be able to discuss issues that were important to me with my Ph.D. mentor, who explained why my views were wrong (which they were most of the time, at least in the beginning) or why my ideas were good when that was the case. I appreciated not only the criticism but also the praise, which can be rare in academe these days.

Looking back, I realize that I had always been grateful for the opportunity to grow in the lab as part of a team, but I never realized how lucky I was to have someone invest so much in my future. I think that we can all do a better job at expressing gratitude for our mentors.

That’s the case especially in academe, but it is also true outside of it. I’ve now had experience being part of a team or leading them at various nonprofit organizations, and I again appreciate how much other people have supported and helped me. I continue to be amazed at the level of confidence they have placed in my ability to perform multiple tasks, which has positively influenced both my personal and professional development in significant ways. I am grateful to everyone who has ever put their trust in me to tackle a project and then stepped away and let me lead it. Having someone have complete confidence in my abilities has been a very powerful motivator for me to lead others in much the same way.

Leading Teams in Multiple Settings

You can find a lot of parallels between running a research lab and leading teams in various other settings, including nonprofits. Drawing upon my own experiences, I offer the following advice for being a good team leader both in academe and outside it.

Foster a common vision . As a team member, what motivates me the most is knowing that I am part of something bigger than myself and that, in some small way, I am contributing towards a greater goal. That also encourages my sense of belonging, which is important when you are part of any organization.

I’ve also come to realize that working toward a common vision is much more motivating to me than my own personal reasons for carrying out a task. In a way, that could possibly be the single most important issue in academe: How would the system change if we all worked together towards the common good instead of focusing on our own individual motivations? Collaborating towards a common vision is something I have tried to impart to any team that I have led -- and will emphasize with those I lead in the future.

Have a plan, schedule and deadline. Most people are busy, and if you want something from them, it is best to let them know well in advance. So give them plenty of notice for meetings or tasks you want them to perform and schedule meetings at a time when everyone can participate. Create a detailed plan so that each person knows what they are supposed to be doing. Perhaps it is just personal preference, but I am much more productive when I know what I need to do, when it’s due and how it fits into the grander vision. Although it takes practice, I do my best to give the volunteers whom I have led on various committees a good sense of those things.

Have a product in mind and work backwards. Knowing what the final product of my work will be (whether it’s a publication, poster or something else) has always been helpful to know ahead of time. That allows a team to work backwards in thinking about how to accomplish the small, gradual tasks leading up to the ultimate goal. When I started graduate school, I mostly looked at the details of my experiments and didn’t think about the broader vision of my work. At the time, I was probably thinking that the most important thing in the world was to publish a paper and graduate with my Ph.D. -- which was quite selfish.

Later on, I realized that my mentor had always looked at the big picture and filled in the details that made the most sense for what we were trying to accomplish, and I trusted in her leadership. Now, after having led teams in various settings, I understand the need to work backwards from the broader vision to the specific details.

Find a mentor and appreciate them. None of us can succeed alone. We must have someone who will be our champion along the way and help us progress down a certain path -- and, in my case, also help us discover what that path is. By having not only a supportive mentor but also someone who will let us explore things on our own, we can discover so much about ourselves along the way.

This type of discovery is not possible without stepping away from our busy lives and taking the time for introspection, and it also requires having someone to allow us to do that. I appreciate the people who trained me in that way, and I try to do the same for others.  

Build a versatile team. As important as it is to be a good leader, you will not be able to achieve much -- or at least not be able to make a lasting, long-term impact -- without a team to support you. Picking a good team can make or break entire organizations because it takes multiple motivated people to succeed. When each member can bring different perspectives and strengths to the table, it often creates the best path to success. For usefull discussions, you may even want to have some members on your team who disagree with you on certain things (but not on the core messages of your organization).

Knowing the personalities, interests, motivations, passions, likes and dislikes of your team members is also very important for making sure that each one feels valued and that you use their strengths in the best ways possible. Understanding someone’s background is crucial to knowing what might motivate them to act for change.

Have a mission and say it often . Even the most motivated people sometimes lose track of the bigger vision and their role within it, which is why having a leader who can articulate the mission repeatedly is vital to the overall success of any group. It's important to remind team members of where they fit in the larger goal of the organization, as well as to show appreciation for their contributions to it.

Be the type of leader you would look up to. As a leader yourself, it is not always easy to stay on task. Having a team of people in whom you have confidence backing you up and doing the work behind the scenes can allow you to take a break and just let things happen sometimes. As a leader make sure to follow up with them, but also trust them to do their job, and they will thank you for it.

You should try to be the embodiment of what you would like to see in a leader. That means having integrity and honesty, keeping your word, learning from everyone and remembering that your role is to serve. You should also learn to delegate and accept criticism, listen more than you talk, trust and value your team members, apologize when you are wrong, and ask for help when you need it. Finally, don’t be afraid to take risks, plan for the long-term, stay humble and true to your grand vision, and articulate that vision early and often.

And again, always be grateful to your current and past mentors. Doing so and leading others by example are crucial elements for the success of any team, whether within academe or in other settings. 

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Leadership — The Qualities Of A Good Leader

The Qualities of a Good Leader

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 462 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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Effective communication, strong decision-making skills, inspiration and motivation, adaptability.

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Essay on Leadership | Leadership Essay for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Leadership Essay: Leadership is one of those characteristics of a successful man or woman that is never inherited but learned and imbibed into. The term leadership its self can’t be defined and it depends on person to person’s perception of life. Does leadership mean you lead someone by working with them? Does leadership mean you make someone work for you? Does a person become a leader only if he or she has followers?

It is difficult to give one definition to leadership but it can safely be said that leadership is important to run this world. Be it a country, a company, a family or even a small classroom, leaders around the world, big or small, have played a pivotal role in our lives.

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Long and Short Essay on Leadership in School kids and Students

In this article, we provided students and children with a long and short essay on leadership that they can use in submitting there assignments and project works.

Long Essay on Leadership in English

Find long essay on leadership of 600 words in the English language meant for school going students

Leadership Essay Introduction: Leadership is defined by how well you lead a team into the goals and objectives set by you. Leadership is also defined by the clarity and quality of goals that you set for your followers. It is not easy being a leader. A leader is simply not someone who will please everyone on his way. A leader is someone who has the courage and intent of mind to take tough decisions even if it brings harm to his followers but is in the direction of fulfilling the goals.

Not all leaders are loved by their followers. There will always be someone in the population that are not happy with the leader or his or her decisions and style of leadership. If a leader tries to please everyone in the population, then he or she will become gullible and be known as a weak leader. In this Essay on Leadership, we will be talking about the characteristics of a good leader.

What are the Traits of a Good Leader?

Following are the essay on leadership traits:

Integrity: In an era where there is an increasingly cut-throat competition to be “successful”, it has become a rare phenomenon to find integrity among people. And if a leader himself lacks integrity, then it would be wrong to expect that trait from his followers. And this trend leads to a very dangerous and a kind of dystopian future.

Confidence: Take for example Narendra Modi or Steve Jobs or Indira Gandhi. When you see them on television or hear their speeches elsewhere, you will always see them oozing with self-confidence. This is an important trait that every leader should have. If a leader himself is not confident about himself or his decision, then how can he expect his or her followers to have confidence in him.

Inspirational:  Source of inspiration from a leader can come from various domains and corners of his or her life, be it their persona, background or competency. Nelson Mandela inspires his followers because of all the sacrifices that he himself made in his life. Barack Obama inspires his followers by his ability to speak and his humble beginnings. Indira Gandhi inspired her followers because of her courage and ability to take bold and strong decisions. Mahatma Gandhi inspires his followers by his ideologies, beliefs and principals. There should a USP (Unique Selling Point) in a leader for his or her followers to get inspired and motivated.

Clarity of Mind: A leader needs to have a clear-cut clarity of mind. The decisions he or she takes is based on their intentions, goals and objectives. There can be many hurdles that they might face during the journey but nevertheless they should not lose clarity and focus on the goal that they are trying to achieve. A  clear cut clarity will give a sense of confidence among the followers and make them feel that their leader knows what he or she is doing.

I would like to conclude by saying that it is not an easy job to be a leader. A statesman or a true leader is someone who does everything in their capacity to achieve what they are supposed to achieve. They won’t and should not lose focus on their journey.

Short Essay on Leadership in English

Below, we have provided a 150 to 200-word essay on leadership for children and school students

A leader is someone who will inspire, motivate and give a sense of purpose and direction to his or her followers. A leader will have to face many hurdles in life from various sections including his own followers. But there comes a point where a leader should choose between his followers and achieving his goals. And that is where the true test for a leader comes into the picture.

The ability to inspire people and make them fall in love with his or her ideologies and goals is a testament for a good leadership quality especially when there are troubling times during his or her tenure.

To be a good leader, he should be aware of all the human idiosyncrasies and every spectrum of life. He should be empathetic and at the same time should have the ability to take strong, bold and necessary decisions even if it means he will become unpopular.  Troubling and conflicting times are what makes for a good leader. From Nelson Mandela to Abraham Lincoln, everyone has risen to the occasion and been a sense of hope for their followers when people were at their most vulnerable and difficult times.

10 Lines on Leadership Essay

• A leader is someone who has a clarity of mind in decision making
• A leader is not necessarily someone who has love from his followers. A leader is someone who does what is necessary without trying to please everyone in his or her way
• Self-confidence and a sense of motivation is the important trait to become a good leader
• Human civilisation would have never evolved with the rise of leaders in every generation
• Difference between a manager and leader is that the leader sets the rules while manger follows them
• The similarity between a statesman and a leader is that they both have long term vision and good intentions
• A leader will have both followers as well as enemies
• A leader can inspire his followers by his speeches, ideologies, background or just through his or her persona
• Difficult times are the true test for a leadership ability
• The greatest of great leaders in the world are both loved and hated by many, including there followers

FAQs on Leadership Essay

Question 1. Who is the greatest leader in the world?

Answer: There is no one great leader in the world, but many exist in each sphere of life. Some of them are Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Jawaharlal Nehru, Steve Jobs, Ratan Tata

Question 2. What is the most important characteristic of a leader?

Answer: Self-confidence and motivation is the greatest trait they every leader should possess

Question 3. Was Adolf Hitler a good leader?

Answer: Since his intentions were bad and it led to a world war and massacre of many Jews, it would not be sane to call him a good leader

Question 4. Do leaders make mistakes

Answer: Of course, they do. At the end of the day they too are human beings but the difference is they learn from their mistakes and try to never repeat the same again

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Student Essay: The Power of Stories to Inspire Strong Leaders

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Maya S. is a Muslim, Egyptian and student athlete who has lived in Saudi Arabia for most of her life. She is 16 and a junior at the American International School of Riyadh, where she is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program.

In this Student Essay of the Week, Maya talks about how building a platform for others to share their stories has helped her understand why welcoming diversity of thought and experience will make her a stronger, more empathetic leader.

Three steps forward and two steps back. That was my reality during the privilege walk.

In October 2018, I was selected along with 50 other high school students to attend a leadership trip to a farm outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We believed that we were all going to learn about how to become leaders with strong voices. However, the trip took a completely unexpected and inspiring turn. Instead, we left knowing how to listen first and speak second.

At the farm, we participated in an activity called a privilege walk , where we were asked to step forward or backward in response to certain questions. From the responses, it became obvious that all of us were struggling with something that those around us knew nothing about.

I learned that the girl beside me once wondered where her next meal would come from. The girl beside her was afraid to leave the house at night because she had been assaulted. The boy to my left had been held at gunpoint. And the boy beside him had a mental disorder. This realization hit me hard. I was able to understand that although it’s impossible for us all to experience the same things, it is possible for us to try and listen to each other and understand each other’s differences. I began to appreciate the meaning of finding beauty in diversity. During that trip I learned that true leaders listen to the voices of others, and as a result they are able to enrich their own points of view.

“Living with anxiety is like feeling alive through the motions of life, but never freely living. It’s being aware of my surroundings, but lost in another world inside my head.”

During the summer of that year, someone I loved dearly was faced with medical issues, and my family began dealing with a lot of uncertainty. Even when it was all over, I felt lost and changed. I couldn’t explain it, but I wished that someone understood. I then began thinking of the people standing around me that day in Riyadh during the privilege walk, and everyone around the world like us. Did we all feel the same desire to be understood? How could we all feel seen and valued, regardless of our stories? I wanted to hear more about the stories of all those kids I met that day in line. I wanted to understand how we all ended up there, despite our different paths. I wanted to create something that would allow them to express their stories.

That summer, I started Voice of Change , a weblog that allows other teenagers to contribute writing that reflects the experiences that have shaped them. The first story I received was “Purpose,” from a girl struggling with depression. She wrote, “Purpose: a reason, a given, motivation , a point. We all live life because we have a purpose. We realize that there is a point, we have motivation and a reason to live. We look forward to things and create opportunities for ourselves. We see a future. Imagine living life feeling as though you have no purpose… That means no reason, no motivation, simply no point… the best way to describe this feeling is as if [you’re] dead. This feeling is depression.”

After I posted the article, which talked about how depression impacted the author’s life, I received comments, emails and texts from others saying that the article communicated what they needed to hear and couldn’t put into words. This initial response fueled the rest of my work. I began receiving other stories about challenging experiences, ranging from sexual assault and racial discrimination, to losing a loved one and struggling with body image. Here are a few powerful quotes from these articles:

“I’m not sure who or what I’m living for, but I’d never want to risk my family members feeling as I do right now. It’s okay that I’m suffering right now, because I have faith that it will pass, eventually it will.” – “Live On”

“I am not ignorant because I’m Arab. I’m not a terrorist because I’m Muslim. I am not a thug because I’m black. I am not who I am because of what you see on the news. I am who I am because of what I’ve been through, and what I have become.” – “Assume”

“Living with anxiety is like feeling alive through the motions of life, but never freely living. It’s being aware of my surroundings but lost in another world inside my head.” – “I Choose Life”

I see my Voice of Change journey as having so much to do with becoming a better leader. It has helped me to see clearly the type of leader I hope to become. I have developed a stronger perspective by understanding the voices and stories of others. I have become more empathetic to other people’s struggles, a quality I will need when I run my own business one day. You can’t understand your customers’ wants or your employees’ needs if you don’t listen and appreciate where they’re coming from. Also, Voice of Change has shown me how much our experiences shape us and contribute to how we see the world and solve problems. Each person offers a unique voice and a different perspective – all powerful and important in their own way.

Related Links

• The Privilege Walk
• What Is Empathy? (Sesame Street)
• Knowledge@Wharton: The Emotional Intelligence Deficit
• Wharton’s McNulty Leadership Program

Conversation Starters

What is empathy and why is it such an important leadership quality? How is empathy related to storytelling? Use the Related Links with this article if you need to better understand empathy.

How have your experiences shaped you? Share your story in the Comment section of this article.

Maya writes that she has come to appreciate “how much our experiences shape us and contribute to how we see the world and solve problems.” Diversity of thought is incredibly powerful in the business world. Why does it hold such value? How does it enrich the team dynamic and important outcomes?

6 comments on “ Student Essay: The Power of Stories to Inspire Strong Leaders ”

Hi Maya, Thank you for sharing your fantastic story with us. Being able to appreciate the people around you and, in first place, yourself is one of the major keys to success and, most importantly, happiness in life, at least according to my experience. We all come from different environments and experiences, the same ones which make us who we are, in our uniqueness and diversity, as you clearly and beautifully stated in your essay. Appreciation is one of those emotions, if that’s how we want to define it, I have learned to consider and embrace later in life, but it is surely the one all the rest comes down to: appreciation for life, appreciation for love from our beloved ones… Having dealt throughout life with friends who coped with depression and anxiety, I can say I have experienced the emotional upheaval that tends to follow this kind of acknowledgements. It gives you a completely different perspective on the world, on the people that surround you and on the way you look at your very own life. On the other hand, I’ve been lucky enough to feel the wonderful sense of relief and joy which comes after helping this people, which taught me the value of the word, indeed, appreciation. In the same way I’ve been able to help my dearest friends deal with these horrible feelings and find a way out of them, I find what you have done with this very same individuals awesome: not only giving them a voice through the blog, but giving their peers the chance to find sympathy and reassurance in their words. Keep it up! And take care.

Sonder – n. The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness (The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows).

I believe that sonder, a short and simple made-up word to describe a complex feeling, perfectly captures the spirit of Maya and her article. Maya realized the complexity of the lives of those around her, that every stranger on the leadership trip had their own unique story to tell, filled with their personal struggles. She reaches the conclusion that “each person offers a unique voice and a different perspective – all powerful and important in their own way.”

Sonder, and more broadly, empathy, is a crucial element of being a good leader. I had my own moment of sonder last summer when I had the opportunity to volunteer at my local Chinese senior center. I started volunteering there because I had to fill my school’s requirement for service hours but ended up gaining much more out of it than that. At first, I was wary of taking on the job because my Chinese conversational skills were acceptable at best and rudimentary at worst. However, I quickly found that the seniors were very welcoming and were just happy that someone was willing to sacrifice their time to help out. I performed tasks such as preparing and serving food as well as helped teach ESL and citizenship classes. I learned about the hard work ethic of the workers and volunteers around me while washing apples. I learned about the amiability and habits of the seniors in the lunchroom. There would always be those in the back table playing cards, the younger seniors chatting in the front, and the seasoned mahjong players upstairs. I even had the chance to hear some of their rich stories, stories of their journeys of emigrating from communist China, stories of their successful children, stories of their war experiences, and stories of their hope in America. I truly understood that these seniors, whom I would not have given a second glance on the street, lived such deep and meaningful lives, each of which would be a thrilling standalone novel.

Just like Maya learned to understand those from different backgrounds, I was able to empathize with these seniors and develop an appreciation for their experiences. We should all have empathy for each other in this world full of division and hatred. Sonder helps us have that empathy not only with those close to us but with everyone around us.

When I became the youngest Student Council President of my school, my idea of a strong leader was someone who could command and lead a group of people with total authority the way they like it. So, that’s what I tried to do during my early days as a leader. I thought I would be a strong leader by commanding the student council and demonstrating my full authority over the rest. But after the first month, like Maya, the experience of being a leader took a completely unexpected and inspiring turn. I learned, like Maya, that you have to listen first and speak second. It is by listening to others that makes you a stronger leader because it is easier to command and display your authority. But it is harder to swallow your pride and listen to others when their opinions or stories differ from yours.

Therefore, in the Student Council that I am in, I launched an initiative called “Listen Monday” with the purpose of listening to everyone’s opinions and views in the student council and utilizing them for the betterment of the school.

By understanding the voices of others it has helped me develop a better perspective. I have become more empathetic to others. Listening to others has allowed me to see the full picture that I have never seen. And because I see the bigger picture, I realized that other’s experiences can help shape how I see the world and solve problems. As Maya said, each person offers a unique voice and a different perspective, all-powerful and important in their own way.

I want to thank Maya for inspiring me.

When I became the youngest Student Council President of my school, my idea of a strong leader was someone who could command and lead a group of people with total authority the way they like it. So, that’s what I tried to do during my early days as a leader. I thought I would be a strong leader by commanding the student council and demonstrating my full authority over the rest. But after the first month, like Maya, the experience of being a leader took a completely unexpected and inspiring turn. I learned, like Maya, that you have to listen first and speak second. It is by listening to others that makes you a stronger leader because it is easier to command and display your authority. But it is harder to swallow your pride and listen to others when their opinions or stories differ from yours.

Therefore, in the Student Council that I am in, I launched an initiative called “Listen Monday” with the purpose of listening to everyone’s opinions and views in the student council and utilizing them for the betterment of the school.

By understanding the voices of others it has helped me develop a better perspective. I have become more empathetic to others. Listening to others has allowed me to see the full picture that I have never seen. And because I see the bigger picture, I realized that other’s experiences can help shape how I see the world and solve problems. As Maya said, each person offers a unique voice and a different perspective, all-powerful and important in their own way. I realized exhaustively now that a strong leader is someone that listens first and speak second.

I want to thank Maya for inspiring me to become a better leader.

Hello L Dau K!

Thank you for sharing your experience and lessons as a student council president. Listening to your implementation of listening Mondays has brought me back to a time when I was the storyteller, pouring my life out, not to a student council president, but to my mother.

Before the story begins, I must tell you about my mother. She is a very successful corporate leader of hundreds of people. Of course, when it comes to life, she’s never lost her footing when it comes to parenting. Her dogma for me was always the same as that for her employees. She required me to write a time schedule and reflect on life every day and report my academic progress to her with a PowerPoint presentation every week. Similar to your listening Mondays, but coerced. Of course, these rules also apply to her employees. I argued with her countless times, berating her for treating me, at the time, a 12-year-old, as her employee. Perhaps you have already begun to detest my mother’s parenting philosophy, or that she is just another derelict mother who neglects her children’s emotional needs to give her career 100%. But she was a mother for the first time, and I as her oldest child witnessed her growth and how she became a leader, both to her employees and to me.

Where should I begin my story with this leader? As I counted the episodes that flashed through my mind, neither the long conversation in the evening breeze nor the laughing conversation in the dark living room seemed like the most appropriate beginning of the story. Puzzled, I put down my thoughts and sat down to recall the beginning of our conversations. There’s no longer nameless fear and tension when she approaches me, dreading to hear what she has to say. Instead, I always walked up to her when I found her alone, and the dialogue always began with a sigh. I told her many stories about young love, friends, hobbies, and self-reflection, all parts of me that I was reluctant to reveal in PowerPoints. She is busy all day but never said no when I started a conversation. I could feel that she valued every part of our communication, regardless of how nonsensical it was, taking it wholeheartedly. She would sit down and listen to every word I had to say, and she would take to heart every hint of emotion I tried to convey. She did her best to understand my passions, cater to my needs, and embrace my sentiments. And that’s one of the most valuable lessons she’s taught me as a leader.

My mother’s growth as a leader came naturally to her as she listened to every ebullient story and every heart-wrenching sob. She did what many leaders, even in family relationships, fail to do: give the most attention to her children and subordinates, dwelling on their stories, bringing herself into their emotions, and living their experiences. Simply receiving a comment differentiates from understanding the root of their feedback. Through sharing stories with my mother, as my thoughts became words and leaped out of my mouth, my thoughts received a carrier. The stories I told were imparted with meaning through the process of communication. These words made me who I am and marked every footprint of mine. Not only giving her a chance to guide me but giving me a chance to recourse, bonding two unknown souls by building emotional bridges rather than giving ice-cold PowerPoint presentations. I myself am walking on those bridges, and I will be learning to build them up. Through open communication, we can build bridges high enough to see the world from a bigger view, see the tips of Mt. Everest, hear the mumbles of rhinoceros and vaquitas, and unveil a side of the world that we have never seen before.

In her essay “The Power of Stories to Inspire Strong Leaders”, Maya S. quotes “I was able to understand that although it’s impossible for us to all experience the same things, it is possible for us to try and listen to each other and understand each other’s differences. I began to appreciate the meaning of finding beauty in diversity. During that trip I learned that true leaders listen to the voices of others, and as a result they are able to enrich their own points of view.” This quote taught me that in order to be understood, one must learn to understand.

As an international student living in the states, my school days were certainly different from most of my classmates. There were a lot more plane rides, more hours of memorizing English vocabulary, and less people that paid attention to the struggles I went through. It was hard to focus on the upside of life when I knew that my comfort zone was about 6800 miles away. I felt like I was drowning in my own world, and was unsure of what I needed to do to get out of it.

As time passed, I did learn to embrace my new home. That started with a simple step: Learning about how people here lived. I added Kendrick Lamar and Olivia Rodrigo to my playlist, started to watch the NBA, and reached out for corrections when I didn’t recognize an English word. As I began to understand and appreciate what was around me, it was way easier to fit in. My struggles started to pay off as I received multiple honors and varsity MVP awards. Apart from Academics, I also became much more active in the social circle. I learned more about life here from my new friends, and also taught them some parts of life that I left behind back in Korea. After these changes, I could proudly say that I’m definitely leading my own life.

Maya’s story of the privilege walk reminded me of the change in my perspective before and after trying to understand American culture. At first I was hesitant in getting to know the new environment, but now I see the hidden value of entirely different customs, just like how Maya was able to understand the children with more depth. Furthermore, something Maya did that I greatly appreciate is that she didn’t just stop from enlightenment and took action to advocate for her beliefs. I believe that Maya’s propulsion of creating the “Voice of Change” weblog exemplifies what leaders do to promote their voice to the world. As a person aspiring to be a global leader and a businessman, I was greatly inspired by Maya’s quotes of insight and her action to spread her words.

Our world today is heavily interconnected, and the effects of collaborating across diverse backgrounds have never been more apparent. As I reflect on Maya’s quote and my own understanding, I am reminded that true leaders are distinguished by their ability to seek harmony in differences. My journey from a foreign student drowning in isolation to a confident participant in a global community underscores the transformative power of understanding others to be understood. Of course there are still customs that I cannot resonate with, like pineapple on pizza. But as I step forward into a world of connections and communications, I carry with me the invaluable lesson that true understanding is the cornerstone of meaningful process.

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Seamless in Seattle: NVIDIA Research Showcases Advancements in Visual Generative AI at CVPR

NVIDIA researchers are at the forefront of the rapidly advancing field of visual generative AI, developing new techniques to create and interpret images, videos and 3D environments.

More than 50 of these projects will be showcased at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) conference, taking place June 17-21 in Seattle. Two of the papers — one on the training dynamics of diffusion models and another on high-definition maps for autonomous vehicles — are finalists for CVPR’s Best Paper Awards.

NVIDIA is also the winner of the CVPR Autonomous Grand Challenge’s End-to-End Driving at Scale track — a significant milestone that demonstrates the company’s use of generative AI for comprehensive self-driving models. The winning submission, which outperformed more than 450 entries worldwide, also received CVPR’s Innovation Award.

NVIDIA’s research at CVPR includes a text-to-image model that can be easily customized to depict a specific object or character, a new model for object pose estimation, a technique to edit neural radiance fields ( NeRFs ) and a visual language model that can understand memes. Additional papers introduce domain-specific innovations for industries including automotive, healthcare and robotics.

Collectively, the work introduces powerful AI models that could enable creators to more quickly bring their artistic visions to life, accelerate the training of autonomous robots for manufacturing, and support healthcare professionals by helping process radiology reports.

“Artificial intelligence, and generative AI in particular, represents a pivotal technological advancement,” said Jan Kautz, vice president of learning and perception research at NVIDIA. “At CVPR, NVIDIA Research is sharing how we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible — from powerful image generation models that could supercharge professional creators to autonomous driving software that could help enable next-generation self-driving cars.”

At CVPR, NVIDIA also announced NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud Sensor RTX , a set of microservices that enable physically accurate sensor simulation to accelerate the development of fully autonomous machines of every kind.

Forget Fine-Tuning: JeDi Simplifies Custom Image Generation

Creators harnessing diffusion models, the most popular method for generating images based on text prompts, often have a specific character or object in mind — they may, for example, be developing a storyboard around an animated mouse or brainstorming an ad campaign for a specific toy.

Prior research has enabled these creators to personalize the output of diffusion models to focus on a specific subject using fine-tuning — where a user trains the model on a custom dataset — but the process can be time-consuming and inaccessible for general users.

JeDi , a paper by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and NVIDIA, proposes a new technique that allows users to easily personalize the output of a diffusion model within a couple of seconds using reference images. The team found that the model achieves state-of-the-art quality, significantly outperforming existing fine-tuning-based and fine-tuning-free methods.

JeDi can also be combined with retrieval-augmented generation , or RAG, to generate visuals specific to a database, such as a brand’s product catalog.

New Foundation Model Perfects the Pose

NVIDIA researchers at CVPR are also presenting FoundationPose , a foundation model for object pose estimation and tracking that can be instantly applied to new objects during inference, without the need for fine-tuning.

The model, which set a new record on a popular benchmark for object pose estimation, uses either a small set of reference images or a 3D representation of an object to understand its shape. It can then identify and track how that object moves and rotates in 3D across a video, even in poor lighting conditions or complex scenes with visual obstructions.

FoundationPose could be used in industrial applications to help autonomous robots identify and track the objects they interact with. It could also be used in augmented reality applications where an AI model is used to overlay visuals on a live scene.

NeRFDeformer Transforms 3D Scenes With a Single Snapshot

A NeRF is an AI model that can render a 3D scene based on a series of 2D images taken from different positions in the environment. In fields like robotics, NeRFs can be used to generate immersive 3D renders of complex real-world scenes, such as a cluttered room or a construction site. However, to make any changes, developers would need to manually define how the scene has transformed — or remake the NeRF entirely.

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and NVIDIA have simplified the process with NeRFDeformer. The method, being presented at CVPR, can successfully transform an existing NeRF using a single RGB-D image, which is a combination of a normal photo and a depth map that captures how far each object in a scene is from the camera.

VILA Visual Language Model Gets the Picture

A CVPR research collaboration between NVIDIA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is advancing the state of the art for vision language models, which are generative AI models that can process videos, images and text.

The group developed VILA , a family of open-source visual language models that outperforms prior neural networks on key benchmarks that test how well AI models answer questions about images. VILA’s unique pretraining process unlocked new model capabilities, including enhanced world knowledge, stronger in-context learning and the ability to reason across multiple images.

The VILA model family can be optimized for inference using the NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM open-source library and can be deployed on NVIDIA GPUs in data centers, workstations and even edge devices .

Read more about VILA on the NVIDIA Technical Blog and GitHub .

Generative AI Fuels Autonomous Driving, Smart City Research

A dozen of the NVIDIA-authored CVPR papers focus on autonomous vehicle research. Other AV-related highlights include:

• NVIDIA’s AV applied research , which won the CVPR Autonomous Grand Challenge , is featured in this demo .
• Sanja Fidler , vice president of AI research at NVIDIA, will present on vision language models at the Workshop on Autonomous Driving on June 17.
• Producing and Leveraging Online Map Uncertainty in Trajectory Prediction , a paper authored by researchers from the University of Toronto and NVIDIA, has been selected as one of 24 finalists for CVPR’s best paper award.

Also at CVPR, NVIDIA contributed the largest ever indoor synthetic dataset to the AI City Challenge , helping researchers and developers advance the development of solutions for smart cities and industrial automation. The challenge’s datasets were generated using NVIDIA Omniverse , a platform of APIs, SDKs and services that enable developers to build Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) -based applications and workflows.

NVIDIA Research has hundreds of scientists and engineers worldwide, with teams focused on topics including AI, computer graphics, computer vision, self-driving cars and robotics. Learn more about NVIDIA Research at CVPR .

NVIDIA websites use cookies to deliver and improve the website experience. See our cookie policy for further details on how we use cookies and how to change your cookie settings.

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CVPR 2024 Announces Best Paper Award Winners

This year, from more than 11,500 paper submissions, the CVPR 2024 Awards Committee selected the following 10 winners for the honor of Best Papers during the Awards Program at CVPR 2024, taking place now through 21 June at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, Wash., U.S.A.

Best Papers

• “ Generative Image Dynamics ” Authors: Zhengqi Li, Richard Tucker, Noah Snavely, Aleksander Holynski The paper presents a new approach for modeling natural oscillation dynamics from a single still picture. This approach produces photo-realistic animations from a single picture and significantly outperforms prior baselines. It also demonstrates potential to enable several downstream applications such as creating seamlessly looping or interactive image dynamics.
• “ Rich Human Feedback for Text-to-Image Generation ” Authors: Youwei Liang, Junfeng He, Gang Li, Peizhao Li, Arseniy Klimovskiy, Nicholas Carolan, Jiao Sun, Jordi Pont-Tuset, Sarah Young, Feng Yang, Junjie Ke, Krishnamurthy Dj Dvijotham, Katherine M. Collins, Yiwen Luo, Yang Li, Kai J. Kohlhoff, Deepak Ramachandran, and Vidhya Navalpakkam This paper highlights the first rich human feedback dataset for image generation. Authors designed and trained a multimodal Transformer to predict the rich human feedback and demonstrated some instances to improve image generation.

Honorable mention papers included, “ EventPS: Real-Time Photometric Stereo Using an Event Camera ” and “ pixelSplat: 3D Gaussian Splats from Image Pairs for Scalable Generalizable 3D Reconstruction. ”

Best Student Papers

• “ Mip-Splatting: Alias-free 3D Gaussian Splatting ” Authors: Zehao Yu, Anpei Chen, Binbin Huang, Torsten Sattler, Andreas Geiger This paper introduces Mip-Splatting, a technique improving 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) with a 3D smoothing filter and a 2D Mip filter for alias-free rendering at any scale. This approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in out-of-distribution scenarios, when testing at sampling rates different from training, resulting in better generalization to out-of-distribution camera poses and zoom factors.
• “ BioCLIP: A Vision Foundation Model for the Tree of Life ” Authors: Samuel Stevens, Jiaman Wu, Matthew J. Thompson, Elizabeth G. Campolongo, Chan Hee Song, David Edward Carlyn, Li Dong, Wasila M. Dahdul, Charles Stewart, Tanya Berger-Wolf, Wei-Lun Chao, and Yu Su This paper offers TREEOFLIFE-10M and BIOCLIP, a large-scale diverse biology image dataset and a foundation model for the tree of life, respectively. This work shows BIOCLIP is a strong fine-grained classifier for biology in both zero- and few-shot settings.

There also were four honorable mentions in this category this year: “ SpiderMatch: 3D Shape Matching with Global Optimality and Geometric Consistency ”; “ Image Processing GNN: Breaking Rigidity in Super-Resolution; Objects as Volumes: A Stochastic Geometry View of Opaque Solids ;” and “ Comparing the Decision-Making Mechanisms by Transformers and CNNs via Explanation Methods. ”

“We are honored to recognize the CVPR 2024 Best Paper Awards winners,” said David Crandall, Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind., U.S.A., and CVPR 2024 Program Co-Chair. “The 10 papers selected this year – double the number awarded in 2023 – are a testament to the continued growth of CVPR and the field, and to all of the advances that await.”

Additionally, the IEEE Computer Society (CS), a CVPR organizing sponsor, announced the Technical Community on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TCPAMI) Awards at this year’s conference. The following were recognized for their achievements:

• 2024 Recipient : “ Rich Feature Hierarchies for Accurate Object Detection and Semantic Segmentation ” Authors: Ross Girshick, Jeff Donahue, Trevor Darrell, Jitendra Malik
• 2024 Recipient : Angjoo Kanazawa, Carl Vondrick
• 2024 Recipient : Andrea Vedaldi

“The TCPAMI Awards demonstrate the lasting impact and influence of CVPR research and researchers,” said Walter J. Scheirer, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind., U.S.A., and CVPR 2024 General Chair. “The contributions of these leaders have helped to shape and drive forward continued advancements in the field. We are proud to recognize these achievements and congratulate them on their success.”

About the CVPR 2024 The Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR) is the preeminent computer vision event for new research in support of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), augmented, virtual and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), deep learning, and much more. Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society (CS) and the Computer Vision Foundation (CVF), CVPR delivers the important advances in all areas of computer vision and pattern recognition and the various fields and industries they impact. With a first-in-class technical program, including tutorials and workshops, a leading-edge expo, and robust networking opportunities, CVPR, which is annually attended by more than 10,000 scientists and engineers, creates a one-of-a-kind opportunity for networking, recruiting, inspiration, and motivation.

CVPR 2024 takes place 17-21 June at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, Wash., U.S.A., and participants may also access sessions virtually. For more information about CVPR 2024, visit cvpr.thecvf.com .

About the Computer Vision Foundation The Computer Vision Foundation (CVF) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to foster and support research on all aspects of computer vision. Together with the IEEE Computer Society, it co-sponsors the two largest computer vision conferences, CVPR and the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). Visit thecvf.com for more information.

About the IEEE Computer Society Engaging computer engineers, scientists, academia, and industry professionals from all areas and levels of computing, the IEEE Computer Society (CS) serves as the world’s largest and most established professional organization of its type. IEEE CS sets the standard for the education and engagement that fuels continued global technological advancement. Through conferences, publications, and programs that inspire dialogue, debate, and collaboration, IEEE CS empowers, shapes, and guides the future of not only its 375,000+ community members, but the greater industry, enabling new opportunities to better serve our world. Visit computer.org for more information.

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Nemotron-4 340B

We release the Nemotron-4 340B model family, including Nemotron-4-340B-Base, Nemotron-4-340B-Instruct, and Nemotron-4-340B-Reward. Our models are open access under the NVIDIA Open Model License Agreement, a permissive model license that allows the distribution, modification, and use of the models and their outputs. These models perform competitively to open access models on a wide range of evaluation benchmarks, and were sized to fit on a single DGX H100 with 8 GPUs when deployed in FP8 precision. We believe that the community can benefit from these models in various research studies and commercial applications, especially for generating synthetic data to train smaller language models. Notably, over 98% of data used in our model alignment process is synthetically generated, showcasing the effectiveness of these models in generating synthetic data. To further support open research and facilitate model development, we are also open-sourcing the synthetic data generation pipeline used in our model alignment process.

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Guest Essay

America Isn’t Leading the World

By Stephen Wertheim

Dr. Wertheim is a historian and an analyst of U.S. foreign policy.

After four years of Donald Trump, Joe Biden was supposed to restore the United States to a position of global leadership. By many conventional standards of Washington, he has delivered. He anticipated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and adroitly rallied NATO to stand up to it. In Asia, he shored up old alliances, built new ones and fanned China’s economic headwinds. After Israel was attacked, he managed to support it while avoiding all-out regional war.

Yet there is more to global leadership than backing friends and beating back foes. Leaders, in the full sense, don’t just remain on top; they solve problems and inspire confidence. Mr. Trump barely pretends to offer that kind of leadership on the world stage. But precisely because most U.S. officials do, it is all the more striking where American power stands today. Never in the decades since the Cold War has the United States looked less like a leader of the world and more like the head of a faction — reduced to defending its preferred side against increasingly aligned adversaries, as much of the world looks on and wonders why the Americans think they’re in charge.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, a familiar frisson shot through Washington. After decades of dubious warmaking, the United States would become the global good guy again, uniting the world to resist the Kremlin’s blatant affront to law and order. In the opening months, the White House scored brilliant tactical successes, enabling Ukraine’s defense, organizing aid from allies and smoothing Finland’s and Sweden’s entry into NATO. Yet if Russia is paying a steep price for its invasion, the conflict is also dealing a strategic setback to the United States.

The United States now must contend with an aggrieved and unpredictable nuclear peer in Moscow. Worse, China, Iran and North Korea have come closer together to supply Russia’s war effort and resist what they call U.S. global hegemony. This anti-American entente has already proved strong enough to mitigate the effects of Western aid to Ukraine, and it is raising the price of U.S. military dominance. Russia directly borders six countries that the United States is treaty-bound to defend. The Pentagon, meanwhile, is preparing for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The United States is not outmatched, exactly. But it is badly overstretched.

Nor is the rest of the world flocking to America’s side. Most countries are casting a plague on both houses, finding fault in Russian aggression but also in the West’s response. Mr. Biden hasn’t helped matters. By couching the conflict as a “battle between democracy and autocracy” and making few visible efforts to seek peace through diplomacy, he has appeared to ask other countries to sign up for an endless struggle . Hardly any nations besides U.S. allies have imposed sanctions on Russia. Isolating China, if it attacked Taiwan, would be an even taller task . In Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, perceptions of Russia and China have actually improved since 2022.

The Gaza war came at the worst possible time, and Mr. Biden responded to this calamity by plunging in. He immediately pledged support for Israel’s merciless military campaign rather than condition U.S. aid on Israel finding a strategy that would protect civilians. Having chosen to follow, not lead, Mr. Biden was left to tut-tut about Israel’s behavior from the self-imposed sidelines. In a defining conflict, the United States has managed to be weak and oppressive at once. The costs to America’s reputation and security are only beginning to appear.

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China has become a scientific superpower

From plant biology to superconductor physics the country is at the cutting edge.

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I n the atrium of a research building at the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( CAS ) in Beijing is a wall of patents. Around five metres wide and two storeys high, the wall displays 192 certificates, positioned in neat rows and tastefully lit from behind. At ground level, behind a velvet rope, an array of glass jars contain the innovations that the patents protect: seeds.

CAS —the world’s largest research organisation—and institutions around China produce a huge amount of research into the biology of food crops. In the past few years Chinese scientists have discovered a gene that, when removed, boosts the length and weight of wheat grains, another that improves the ability of crops like sorghum and millet to grow in salty soils and one that can increase the yield of maize by around 10%. In autumn last year, farmers in Guizhou completed the second harvest of genetically modified giant rice that was developed by scientists at CAS .

The Chinese Communist Party ( CCP ) has made agricultural research—which it sees as key to ensuring the country’s food security —a priority for scientists. Over the past decade the quality and the quantity of crop research that China produces has grown immensely, and now the country is widely regarded as a leader in the field. According to an editor of a prestigious European plant-sciences journal, there are some months when half of the submissions can come from China.

A journey of a thousand miles

The rise of plant-science research is not unique in China. In 2019 The Economist surveyed the research landscape in the country and asked whether China could one day become a scientific superpower. Today, that question has been unequivocally answered: “yes”. Chinese scientists recently gained the edge in two closely watched measures of high-quality science, and the country’s growth in top-notch research shows no sign of slowing. The old science world order, dominated by America, Europe and Japan, is coming to an end.

One way to measure the quality of a country’s scientific research is to tally the number of high-impact papers produced each year—that is, publications that are cited most often by other scientists in their own, later work. In 2003 America produced 20 times more of these high-impact papers than China, according to data from Clarivate, a science analytics company (see chart 1). By 2013 America produced about four times the number of top papers and, in the most recent release of data, which examines papers from 2022, China had surpassed both America and the entire European Union ( EU ).

Metrics based on citations can be gamed, of course. Scientists can, and do, find ways to boost the number of times their paper is mentioned in other studies, and a recent working paper, by Qui Shumin, Claudia Steinwender and Pierre Azoulay, three economists, argues that Chinese researchers cite their compatriots far more than Western researchers do theirs. But China now leads the world on other benchmarks that are less prone to being gamed. It tops the Nature Index, created by the publisher of the same name, which counts the contributions to articles that appear in a set of prestigious journals. To be selected for publication, papers must be approved by a panel of peer reviewers who assess the study’s quality, novelty and potential for impact. When the index was first launched, in 2014, China came second, but its contribution to eligible papers was less than a third of America’s. By 2023 China had reached the top spot.

According to the Leiden Ranking of the volume of scientific research output, there are now six Chinese universities or institutions in the world top ten, and seven according to the Nature Index. They may not be household names in the West yet, but get used to hearing about Shanghai Jiao Tong, Zhejiang and Peking (Beida) Universities in the same breath as Cambridge, Harvard and ETH Zurich. “Tsinghua is now the number one science and technology university in the world,” says Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at Oxford University. “That’s amazing. They’ve done that in a generation.”

Today China leads the world in the physical sciences, chemistry and Earth and environmental sciences, according to both the Nature Index and citation measures (see chart 2). But America and Europe still have substantial leads in both general biology and medical sciences. “Engineering is the ultimate Chinese discipline in the modern period,” says Professor Marginson, “I think that’s partly about military technology and partly because that’s what you need to develop a nation.”

Applied research is a Chinese strength. The country dominates publications on perovskite solar panels, for example, which offer the possibility of being far more efficient than conventional silicon cells at converting sunlight into electricity. Chinese chemists have developed a new way to extract hydrogen from seawater using a specialised membrane to separate out pure water, which can then be split by electrolysis. In May 2023 it was announced that the scientists, in collaboration with a state-owned Chinese energy company, had developed a pilot floating hydrogen farm off the country’s south-eastern coast.

China also now produces more patents than any other country, although many are for incremental tweaks to designs, as opposed to truly original inventions. New developments tend to spread and be adopted more slowly in China than in the West. But its strong industrial base, combined with cheap energy, means that it can quickly spin up large-scale production of physical innovations like materials. “That’s where China really has an advantage on Western countries,” says Jonathan Bean, CEO of Materials Nexus, a British firm that uses AI to discover new materials.

The country is also signalling its scientific prowess in more conspicuous ways. Earlier this month, China’s Chang’e-6 robotic spacecraft touched down in a gigantic crater on the far side of the Moon, scooped up some samples of rock, planted a Chinese flag and set off back towards Earth. If it successfully returns to Earth at the end of the month, it will be the first mission to bring back samples from this hard-to-reach side of the Moon.

First, sharpen your tools

The reshaping of Chinese science has been achieved by focusing on three areas: money, equipment and people. In real terms, China’s spending on research and development ( R & D ) has grown 16-fold since 2000. According to the most recent data from the OECD , from 2021, China still lagged behind America on overall R & D spending, dishing out $668bn, compared with $806bn for America at purchasing-power parity. But in terms of spending by universities and government institutions only, China has nudged ahead. In these places America still spends around 50% more on basic research, accounting for costs, but China is splashing the cash on applied research and experimental development (see chart 3).

Money is meticulously directed into strategic areas. In 2006 the CCP published its vision for how science should develop over the next 15 years. Blueprints for science have since been included in the CCP ’s five-year development plans. The current plan, published in 2021, aims to boost research in quantum technologies, AI , semiconductors, neuroscience, genetics and biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and exploration of “frontier areas” like deep space, deep oceans and Earth’s poles.

Creating world-class universities and government institutions has also been a part of China’s scientific development plan. Initiatives like “Project 211”, the “985 programme” and the “China Nine League” gave money to selected labs to develop their research capabilities. Universities paid staff bonuses—estimated at an average of $44,000 each, and up to a whopping $165,000—if they published in high-impact international journals.

Building the workforce has been a priority. Between 2000 and 2019, more than 6m Chinese students left the country to study abroad, according to China’s education ministry. In recent years they have flooded back, bringing their newly acquired skills and knowledge with them. Data from the OECD suggest that, since the late 2000s, more scientists have been returning to the country than leaving. China now employs more researchers than both America and the entire EU .

Many of China’s returning scientists, often referred to as “sea turtles” (a play on the Chinese homonym haigui , meaning “to return from abroad”) have been drawn home by incentives. One such programme launched in 2010, the “Youth Thousand Talents”, offered researchers under 40 one-off bonuses of up to 500,000 yuan (equivalent to roughly $150,000 at purchasing-power parity) and grants of up to 3m yuan to get labs up and running back home. And it worked. A study published in Science last year found that the scheme brought back high-calibre young researchers—they were, on average, in the most productive 15% of their peers (although the real superstar class tended to turn down offers). Within a few years, thanks to access to more resources and academic manpower, these returnees were lead scientists on 2.5 times more papers than equivalent researchers who had remained in America.

As well as pull, there has been a degree of push. Chinese scientists working abroad have been subject to increased suspicion in recent years. In 2018 America launched the China Initiative, a largely unsuccessful attempt to root out Chinese spies from industry and academia. There have also been reports of students being deported because of their association with China’s “military-civilian fusion strategy”. A recent survey of current and former Chinese students studying in America found that the share who had experienced racial abuse or discrimination was rising.

The availability of scientists in China means that, for example in quantum computing, some of the country’s academic labs are more like commercial labs in the West, in terms of scale. “They have research teams of 20, 30, even 40 people working on the same experiments, and they make really good progress,” says Christian Andersen, a quantum researcher at Delft University. In 2023 researchers working in China broke the record for the number of quantum bits, or qubits, entangled inside a quantum computer.

China has also splurged on scientific kit. In 2019, when The Economist last surveyed the state of the country’s scientific research, it already had an enviable inventory of flashy hardware including supercomputers, the world’s largest filled-aperture radio telescope and an underground dark-matter detector. The list has only grown since then. The country is now home to the world’s most sensitive ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray detector (which has recently been used to test aspects of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity), the world’s strongest steady-state magnetic field (which can probe the properties of materials) and soon will have one of the world’s most sensitive neutrino detectors (which will be used to work out which type of these fundamental subatomic particles has the highest mass). Europe and America have plenty of cool kit of their own, but China is rapidly adding hardware.

Individual labs in China’s top institutions are also well equipped. Niko McCarty, a journalist and former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was recently given a tour of synthetic biology labs in China, was struck by how, in academic institutions, “the machines are just more impressive and more expansive” than in America. At the Advanced Biofoundry at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, which the country hopes will be the centre of China’s answer to Silicon Valley, Mr McCarty described an “amazing building with four floors of robots”. As Chinese universities fill with state-of-the-art equipment and elite researchers, and salaries become increasingly competitive, Western institutions look less appealing to young and ambitious Chinese scientists. “Students in China don’t think about America as some “scientific Mecca” in the same way their advisers might have done,” said Mr McCarty.

Take AI , for example. In 2019 just 34% of Chinese students working in the field stayed in the country for graduate school or work. By 2022 that number was 58%, according to data from the AI talent tracker by MacroPolo, an American think-tank (in America the figure for 2022 was around 98%). China now contributes to around 40% of the world’s research papers on AI , compared with around 10% for America and 15% for the EU and Britain combined. One of the most highly cited research papers of all time, demonstrating how deep neural networks could be trained on image recognition, was written by AI researchers working in China, albeit for Microsoft, an American company. “China’s AI research is world-class,” said Zachary Arnold, an AI analyst at the Georgetown Centre for Emerging Security and Technology. “In areas like computer vision and robotics, they have a significant lead in research publications.”

Growth in the quality and quantity of Chinese science looks unlikely to stop anytime soon. Spending on science and technology research is still increasing—the government has announced a 10% increase in funding in 2024. And the country is training an enormous number of young scientists. In 2020 Chinese universities awarded 1.4m engineering degrees, seven times more than America did. China has now educated, at undergraduate level, 2.5 times more of the top-tier AI researchers than America has. And by 2025, Chinese universities are expected to produce nearly twice as many P h D graduates in science and technology as America.

To see further, ascend another floor

Although China is producing more top-tier work, it still produces a vast amount of lower-quality science too. On average, papers from China tend to have lower impact, as measured by citations, than those from America, Britain or the EU . And while the chosen few universities have advanced, mid-level universities have been left behind. China’s second-tier institutions still produce work that is of relatively poor quality compared with their equivalents in Europe or America. “While China has fantastic quality at the top level, it’s on a weak base,” explains Caroline Wagner, professor of science policy at Ohio State University.

When it comes to basic, curiosity-driven research (rather than applied) China is still playing catch-up—the country publishes far fewer papers than America in the two most prestigious science journals, Nature and Science . This may partly explain why China seems to punch below its weight in the discovery of completely new technologies. Basic research is particularly scant within Chinese companies, creating a gap between the scientists making discoveries and the industries that could end up using them. “For more original innovation, that might be a minus,” says Xu Xixiang, chief scientist at LONG i Green Energy Technology, a Chinese solar company.

Incentives to publish papers have created a market for fake scientific publications. A study published earlier this year in the journal Research Ethics , featured anonymous interviews from Chinese academics, one of whom said he had “no choice but to commit [research] misconduct”, to keep up with pressures to publish and retain his job. “Citation cartels” have emerged, where groups of researchers band together to write low-quality papers that cite each other’s work in an effort to drive up their metrics. In 2020 China’s science agencies announced that such cash-for-publication schemes should end and, in 2021, the country announced a nationwide review of research misconduct. That has led to improvements—the rate at which Chinese researchers cite themselves, for example, is falling, according to research published in 2023. And China’s middle-ranking universities are slowly catching up with their Western equivalents, too.

The areas where America and Europe still hold the lead are, therefore, unlikely to be safe for long. Biological and health sciences rely more heavily on deep subject-specific knowledge and have historically been harder for China to “bring back and accelerate”, says Tim Dafforn, a professor of biotechnology at University of Birmingham and former adviser to Britain’s department for business. But China’s profile is growing in these fields. Although America currently produces roughly four times more highly influential papers in clinical medicine, in many areas China is producing the most papers that cite this core research, a sign of developing interest that presages future expansion. “On the biology side, China is growing remarkably quickly,” says Jonathan Adams, chief scientist at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. “Its ability to switch focus into a new area is quite remarkable.”

The rise of Chinese science is a double-edged sword for Western governments. China’s science system is inextricably linked with its state and armed forces—many Chinese universities have labs explicitly working on defence and several have been accused of engaging in espionage or cyber-attacks. China has also been accused of intellectual-property theft and increasingly stringent regulations have made it more difficult for international collaborators to take data out of the country; notoriously, in 2019, the country cut off access to American-funded work on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There are also cases of Chinese researchers failing to adhere to the ethical standards expected by Western scientists.

Despite the concerns, Chinese collaborations are common for Western researchers. Roughly a third of papers on telecommunications by American authors involve Chinese collaborators. In imaging science, remote sensing, applied chemistry and geological engineering, the figures are between 25% and 30%. In Europe the numbers are lower, around 10%, but still significant. These partnerships are beneficial for both countries. China tends to collaborate more in areas where it is already strong like materials and physics. A preprint study, released last year, found that for AI research, having a co-author from America or China was equally beneficial to authors from the other country, conferring on average 75% more citations.

Several notable successes have come from working together, too. During the covid-19 pandemic a joint venture between Oxford University’s Engineering Department and the Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research developed a rapid covid test that was used across British airports. In 2015 researchers at University of Cardiff and South China Agricultural University identified a gene that made bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin. Following this, China, the biggest consumer of the drug, banned its use in animal feed, and levels of colistin resistance in both animals and humans declined.

In America and Europe, political pressure is limiting collaborations with China. In March, America’s Science and Technology Agreement with China, which states that scientists from both countries can collaborate on topics of mutual benefit, was quietly renewed for a further six months. Although Beijing appears keen to renew the 45-year-old agreement, many Republicans fear that collaboration with China is helping the country achieve its national-security goals. In Europe, with the exception of environmental and climate projects, Chinese universities have been effectively barred from accessing funding through the Horizon programme, a huge European research initiative.

There are also concerns among scientists that China is turning inwards. The country has explicit aims to become self-reliant in many areas of science and technology and also shift away from international publications as a way of measuring research output. Many researchers cannot talk to the press—finding sources in China for this story was challenging. One Chinese plant scientist, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she had to seek permission a year in advance to attend overseas conferences. “It’s contradictory—on the one hand, they set restrictions so that scientists don’t have freedoms like being able to go abroad to communicate with their colleagues. But on the other hand, they don’t want China to fall behind.”

Live until old, learn until old

The overwhelming opinion of scientists in China and the West is that collaboration must continue or, better, increase. And there is room to do more. Though China’s science output has grown dramatically, the share that is conducted with international collaborators has remained stable at around 20%—Western scientists tend to have far more international collaborations. Western researchers could pay more attention to the newest science from China, too. Data from a study published last year in Nature Human Behaviour showed that, for work of equivalent quality, Chinese scientists cite Western papers far more than vice versa. Western scientists rarely visit, work or study in China, depriving them of opportunities to learn from Chinese colleagues in the way Chinese scientists have done so well in the West.

Closing the door to Chinese students and researchers wishing to come to Western labs would also be disastrous for Western science. Chinese researchers form the backbone of many departments in top American and European universities. In 2022 more of the top-tier AI researchers working in America hailed from China than from America. The West’s model of science currently depends on a huge number of students, often from overseas, to carry out most day-to-day research.

There is little to suggest that the Chinese scientific behemoth will not continue growing stronger. China’s ailing economy may eventually force the CCP to slow spending on research, and if the country were to become completely cut off from the Western science community its research would suffer. But neither of these looks imminent. In 2019 we also asked if research could flourish in an authoritarian system. Perhaps over time its limits will become clear. But for now, and at least for the hard sciences, the answer is that it can thrive. “I think it’d be very unwise to call limits on the Chinese miracle,” says Prof Marginson. “Because it has had no limits up until now.” ■

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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Soaring dragons”

From the June 15th 2024 edition

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Election latest: Nigel Farage criticised for 'disgraceful' comments on Ukraine war - as analysis shows high earners benefit most from Reform plans

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is under fire after reiterating he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, analysis for Sky News shows his party's tax plans disproportionately benefit those on higher incomes.

Saturday 22 June 2024 09:59, UK

• General Election 2024

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• Farage under fire for 'disgraceful' comments on Ukraine war
• Tory candidate says Farage 'should be ashamed of himself'
• Labour: 'Shocking' to see Farage 'get down on his knees and kiss Putin's boots'
• Jon Craig:  Has the Reform UK leader made his first mistake of the election campaign?
• Reform UK's tax plans disproportionately benefit high earners, analysis shows
• Labour defends Starmer after Rowling accuses party of 'abandoning' women
• Live reporting by Ben Bloch

Election essentials

• Manifesto pledges: Alliance Party | Conservatives | Greens | Labour | Lib Dems | Plaid Cymru | Reform | SNP | Sinn Fein | Workers Party
• Trackers:  Who's leading polls? | Is PM keeping promises?
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• Follow Sky's politics podcasts: Electoral Dysfunction | Politics At Jack And Sam's
• Read more:  Who is standing down? | Key seats to watch | What counts as voter ID? | Check if your constituency is changing | Guide to election lingo | Sky's election night plans

We're now more than four weeks into the campaign and can see how the parties are faring in seats they have been targeting, for better or worse.

Watch where the party leaders have visited on our animated map below.

Using the two YouGov MRP polls conducted for Sky News since the election was called, we can examine whether visits from the party leaders have improved their fortunes - or made them worse.

Read the full analysis from our elections analyst, Dr Hannah Bunting , and data journalist Joely Santa Cruz  here:

JK Rowling has said she will "struggle to support" Labour if Sir Keir Starmer keeps his current stance on gender recognition, saying that he has effectively abandoned women concerned about the effect of transgender rights on women ( more here ).

Labour's Steve Reed said in response that the party has "the proudest track record of any political party when it comes to defending the rights of women".

He pointed to the Equal Pay Act, for example, and said Labour wants to go further in closing the gender pay gap, if elected to government.

The Harry Potter author was formerly a party member and donor, but has not continued due to her dissatisfaction with his stance.

But Mr Reed said she's "wrong", telling Sky News: "The Labour Party has always stood up for the rights of women. We will stand up for the rights of women into the future as well."

He said it was "very wrong that trans people were being used at one point as a political football", and that they "experience huge difficulties and challenges in their lives".

"I think we should offer them whatever support we can. That has no bearing whatsoever on our intention and the necessity to support women in their fight, continuing fight for equality."

A Labour spokesperson said in a statement that the Equality Act 2010, passed by the last Labour government, makes clear that "sex and gender are different".

"That’s why we have consistently said that we will not introduce self ID and that we will protect single sex spaces for biological women."

They added: "Keir was right to say that the discussion around these issues can become too polarised.

"After years of division under the Conservatives, Labour will bring the country together and ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect."

We spoke a short while ago with Labour's shadow environment secretary, and we started by asking for his reaction to Nigel Farage's comments that the West "provoked" Russia's invasion of Ukraine ( more here ).

Steve Reed replied that it was "absolutely shocking to hear those kind of comments coming from a high profile British politician".

He said the West needs to "stand up" to Russia, but "instead of that, we see Nigel Farage get down on his knees and kiss Vladimir Putin's boots".

A Labour government, he said, would "continue very, very strong support for Ukraine".

Mr Reed went on to say that he is "absolutely" confident that no such sentiment exists in the Labour Party, noting that when pro-Russian material was shared by a candidate recently, there was "very swift action" taken.

"I'm very, very sorry indeed to see Nigel Farage backing a brutal, murderous dictator like Vladimir Putin rather than standing up to that kind of bullying," he added.

The senior Labour frontbencher also said it is "absolute nonsense" that the expansion of the EU in any way contributed to the war starting.

Slashing red tape for Britain's pubs, restaurants and music venues would be the focus of a review launched within the first 100 days of a Tory government, the party has said.

Ministers would look into ways to "crack down" on councils imposing "disproportionate conditions" and restrictions on licences as part of a bid to boost the UK nighttime economy, the Conservatives say.

It comes as Rishi Sunak seeks to shift the focus of the campaign away from the betting scandal that has thrown his party into fresh turmoil in recent days.

The Tories used the announcement to attack Labour's record on nightlife in London and Wales, as polls continue to put the opposition party on course for a historic victory on 4 July.

Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said: "The nighttime economy is a vibrant sector that's vital to our economy and our society as a whole.

"We've always supported our nighttime economy, with business rates reliefs, economic support during the pandemic - but wherever Labour have been responsible for the sector, it's suffered.

"We'll continue to back our nighttime economy - Labour would cripple it further with higher taxes and more burdensome regulation."

A betting scandal has engulfed the Tory party in recent days, and Rishi Sunak has been under fire for refusing to suspend candidates under investigation over alleged wagers placed on the date of the 4 July contest.

We asked Tory candidate David Simmonds if he is comfortable with the decision not to suspend these candidates, and he replied that "we need to see the outcome of those investigations".

"If it turns out that they've broken the law, that's a different matter. But at the moment it's speculation."

He said the party needs to know "the facts about any individual before making a decision".

Asked how he felt when he heard about the bets, Mr Simmonds pivoted to attacking Labour, saying: "The key message from this is if you're going to win quite a lot at the bookies as a result of this, you're going to need it if there's a Labour government, because you're going to have to pay for their tax rises."

When pushed by Sky's Anna Jones, he admitted the allegations are "uncomfortable".

Reform UK has surged in the polls over the course of the election campaign, denting the Tories' chances of reducing Labour's poll lead.

We asked Tory candidate David Simmonds how worried he is, and he replied: "Reform is the Farage show, and clearly if you've got somebody who's making points like this, who's standing up for Vladimir Putin in our politics, then that's going to have a big impact.

"But the Conservative Party's focus on our positive agenda."

He said the choice on 4 July will be between the "clear plan that's been set out by the Conservatives, and a Labour Party who, to date, have not really been very clear about where they stand on tax and on so many other issues".

Pushed on whether Reform UK and the Tory party should merge - something many supporters of both parties want, according to polls - Mr Simmonds replied: "Nigel Farage is not a Conservative.

"You would not find a Conservative going out and saying that Putin was in any way justified for taking his action with an illegal war in Ukraine, the appalling atrocities that have been committed - that's a deeply unpatriotic thing."

He said the Tory party is proposing increasing defence spending because "we need to protect ourselves for the future from the consequences of the kind of things which Nigel Farage is justifying".

We've just been speaking with Conservative candidate David Simmonds, and we started by asking for his reaction to Nigel Farage's comments that the West "provoked" Russia's invasion of Ukraine ( more here ).

Mr Simmonds told Sky news that his grandfather was "conscripted and went to the Normandy landings because of the apologists for Hitler".

"We don't want a Putin apologist in Downing Street or in government today," he declared.

The Tory candidate went on to say that it is "absolutely clear that we need to resist the ambitions of people like Putin", and that it is "absolutely right that NATO, that Europe, our allies in the United States and across the world, support them in the interests of freedom and liberty across the world".

Mr Farage would note that he did say the war in Ukraine was Putin's fault and that he was wrong to invade a sovereign nation, but that the EU was wrong to expand eastwards.

But Mr Simmonds rejected that, saying: "The expansion of the European Union and the inclusion of some of those states into the single market was one of the key Margaret Thatcher policies that was about bringing about the end of the Cold War."

He said there is "absolutely no justifying the act that Putin has taken", which he has also done elsewhere.

"I think Nigel Farage should be ashamed of himself.

"As somebody who claims to be patriotic, to be apologising for Putin and saying that the West's actions justify that - that's simply unacceptable."

By Tim Baker , political reporter

JK Rowling has said she will "struggle to support" Labour if Sir Keir Starmer keeps his current stance on gender recognition.

The Harry Potter author has authored a  2,000-word essay in The Times  in which she outlines her dissatisfaction with the Labour Party's current position.

In the piece, she criticises Sir Keir, as well as shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy and shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry.

Rowling has been outspoken in her belief that biological women should be able to have separate spaces, and trans women - who were born male - should not be allowed access.

She has been criticised for her position, being widely condemned in recent years for her views on transgender rights, for example claiming that she would rather go to jail than refer to a trans person by their preferred pronouns.

Read more here:

By Gurpreet Narwan , political correspondent

Reform UK bills itself as the party "for the left behind" but its flagship tax policy disproportionately benefits those on higher incomes, analysis for Sky News shows.

Nigel Farage hailed the plan to raise the threshold at which workers start paying tax to from £12,571 to £20,000, saying it would lift millions of low-paid workers out of paying tax altogether.

However, Reform's plan to raise the higher rate threshold from £50,271 to £70,000 would amount to a tax cut worth almost £6,000 for the top 10% of earners, vastly overshadowing the benefit to the lowest earners.

The top 10% of households, by disposable income, have £3,000 a month to spend after housing costs, council tax and direct taxes. A couple in this category would have £5,290 to spend.

These people would gain almost £5,983 in disposable income each year as a result of the changes.

The bottom 10% of households have less than £693 to spend on things such as heating and food each month. The figure rises to £1,195 for a couple. These households would gain an extra £221 per year.

Despite the vast discrepancy, Reform UK has repeatedly framed this as a policy for the lowest paid.

At the party's manifesto launch in South Wales, Mr Farage said: "I think the most innovative policy that we've put out in here is to raise the level at which people start paying tax to £20,000 a year.

"Why? Well, number one, it would take seven million people out of the tax system altogether, a devilishly complicated tax system. That would be a good thing, of course, for those on low pay."

Read the full analysis here:

Has Nigel Farage made his first blunder of the election campaign?

His incendiary claim that the West provoked the war in Ukraine will be offensive to many people.

It may make some of those Conservative supporters considering switching to Reform UK on 4 July think again.

And a clarification in a late-night tweet appearing to row back from his earlier claims in a TV interview suggests he may have realised he went too far.

"I am one of the few figures that have been consistent and honest about the war with Russia," he posted on X.

"Putin was wrong to invade a sovereign nation and the EU was wrong to expand eastward.

"The sooner we realise this, the closer we will be to ending the war and delivering peace."

His earlier comments were straight out of the playbook of his friend Donald Trump.

But if it was his intention to provoke a row and gain him publicity, it may have backfired this time.

Read Jon's full analysis here:

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